The Random Adventures of Cream and Marine: The Sword and the Aegis
by SparkTheCat23
Summary: After the dimensional jump, the girls find themselves in a world that resembles some old tales: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, excepts for a small detail: Sonic had been here before! Follow Cream and Marine on this new adventure as they search for a way to get back home and get into troubles knight-style.
1. Chapter 1

**Hellooooo everyone! Spark The Cat, amateur writer, back to action with another story of my series: The Random Adventures of Cream and Marine. If you don't know me or the previous story (which is probably the case), there is a previous adventure that takes place right before this one. Regardless of it, I intent to make all the stories readable and understandable without the need to read the entire thing. All the connections will be explained in a way, at least I'll try. Now, the main reason for this series to exist is because I always felt that was few stories with Cream and Marine on the spotlight (no, I'm surely not counting Tailream. How is this even a thing?). Anyways, this is my way of making some justice to two characters that have a lot of potential, at least n my humble opinion. As usual, the rights for anything releated to the Sonic franchise belongs to Sega. This story belongs to me. Bla bla bla. Reviews and comments are very welcome, and if by any chance you already read the other story, let me know, it'll be nice. Hope you all enjoy it! Let the adventure begin!**

 **Act 1 Start**

Noon. It was probably noon as the sun was high in the bright blue and clean sky, few sparse clouds distant in the horizon being the divisory line between it and the azure from the sea, its waters as bright and clean as above. In midst of this tranquil landscape, two things stood different from the rest, two vessels floating side by side; one smaller, a small ship, just twice as bigger than a boat, with only one mast and an secondary triangular sail; the other, larger, about the size of a frigate, with a green translucent cover above it and wing-like structures on it's back.

Aboard the larger vessel were two young girls. A cream colored rabbit with an orange streak in the middle of her head, big droopy ears with the tips also orange, her eyes a cinnamon brown color. She wore a orange sleeveless dress with a blue ribbon on the neck, white gloves and orange and yellow boots. The other girl was an orange raccoon with brown rings on her tail and brown ears, and she had blue eyes. The tips of her pig tails were also brown, and so were the marks around her eyes, characteristic of the species. She sported a lime green and white top, black shorts, lime green and orange sneakers and tan gloves. None other than Cream the Rabbit and Marine the Raccoon.

Right now the girls were leaning on the border of the Ocean Tornado as they looked at the shorter ship and at the owner of it. A yellow young fox with two tails and sky blue eyes. The boy had three bangs over his forehead and used golden goggles with dark purple lens. He wore a white thick long sleeve shirt, a blue sleeveless jacket over it and red and white shoes. He stood by the mast of his ship as he stared back at the young girls with a confused look. He was sailing back to his city when a bright flash shone in the horizon. Curious about the event, he changed his course a little and headed to towards it's direction.

Upon reaching the place where light came from, he spotted a strange vessel in the distance and approached it. It seemed to be completely empty when two girly voices came from it, shouting some greetings and something about tails. He stopped at its side and found the sources of the voices, those two unknown kids that seemed to have mistook him with someone. That didn't happen very often, mostly because of his unique feature: his two tails.

Right after awkwardly greet them and answer to a foul remark about his vessel, he asked them who was this person that they mentioned before. Maybe they knew another two tailed fox, thought he found it too hard to believe. After another minute or so of eerie silence, he decided to start a conversation. Somehow.

"Umm, its… a fine vessel you have there. Indeed, I think I have never seen such a… exotic design before"

"Oh thank you. Actually, it's a pretty common model back at home"

"Oh, I see… May I ask where do you come from? I beg your pardon but I don't think you live in this lands"

"Well Ta- ahem. Mister, we are… from a very distant land"

"Yeah, very distant"

The fox then held a suspicious look. He would not dare to maculate such innocent images as these two, but they seemed to be hiding something, which concerned him about their well being. In fact, it was high unlikely that two young ladies would be in the middle of the sea taking care of a ship all alone. There had to be more people in the ship. What if they were hostages of an enemy country, using them to invade the kingdom? Or maybe pirates trying to pass by unnoticed? They could've being held captive for weeks! He had to do something, but he wasn't sure that he would manage to do so.

"Oh, I see… why don't… why don't you come over here so you can tell me more about how you ended here…?"

Cream and Marine looked at each other with a slightly worried look, which didn't passed unnoticed by the fox.

"We would love to talk about it, mister"

"But we have to go now. Things to do, places to see"

If the girls learned something from their last trip was that when dimensional jumping was involved, something obvious and familiar could be completely different from what they expected, and all the caution was not enough. Who knows, this Tails could be a mean guy, maybe a pirate or some kind of kidnaper. They planned to dismiss him easily and just leave as fast as they could without raising suspicions.

"But I insist that you do. I have to know more about this vessel of yours. It's simply fascinating"

"Sorry but we are on a hurry right now, mate. Maybe another time, if we meet again?"

"Who knows when another opportunity will come? We better take it while there's time. Is there anyone else on your ship? I would like to meet the crew"

 **Insert underwater countdown here**

The tension was building up with Cream and Marine. What would they say? Either yes or no, he could be planning something. Marine was sweating a bit while she thought about her answer and Cream was holding the wooden ledge with increasing strength. Their minds were racing around what they should do, thinking about a plan to fight if necessary, or maybe a escape route would be safer? They weren't sure.

"Oh dang it! Marine, start the engines!"

"R-right!"

They gave up on the act and decided to flee instead of fight. Marine rushed to the bridge, almost tripping when she went through the doorway, and started to turn on the engines via the control panel. While she assumed the steering wheel, Cream decided to take some defensive measures and loaded one of the small side cannons on the ship. She pointed towards the smaller ship and was about to try and say some kind of threat or warning, but she no longer could see the fox.

When she looked to her right she found him just a feel inches away from her. She yelped and, surprised by the sudden move, let her guard down. The fox grabbed her wrists and tried to pull her away from the cannon and towards the other ship. Cream, of course, resisted against it with all her might.

"Hey, wait! Stay calm, I will vet you out of here"

"You sure are not! Let me go!"

They kept struggling as Marine watched the scene developing on the deck. She was looking at the radar to see if she could find an island or something to make a run and when she looked up she saw the fox climbing aboard the Tornado. Before she could shout something, the guy got a hold on Cream. Now she was looking for something to take him down, but the vessel lacked of melee weapons such as a sword on even a club. They were anything but necessary having Blaze around. She looked to her side and spotted an old friend leaning on the corner of the bridge.

"Guess it's you and me again, mop"

She grabbed the mop and rushed to the deck. Meanwhile, Cream kept fighting against the kidnaper. He was saying he wanted to help her but she knew better than to believe in him. Never talk to strangers, her mother always said, so following an foreign alternative Tails was completely out of question. They were near the ledge and the fox was almost winning, so by instinct, Cream kicked his knee. The guy flinched and let go of her wrists, jumping in the place on one leg as he held the other. With the adrenaline running through her veins, she made another daring move and punched him in the nose, knocking him on the ground backwards. Two or three seconds of dizziness and the guy finally registered what happened, taking a serious mental note that this rabbit was much stronger that she looked. Just when he sat up he received another blow to the head, a soaked one, may I say. Marine just ran in and hit him with the mop, once again knocking him down.

He murmured something while he kept on the floor and Marine raised the mop again. His eyes widened and he shouted, his arms blocking the way to his head.

"I surrender! I surrender!"

Marine lowered the mop, but still kept it on her hands and pointed towards him, while Cream held a defensive stance with her hands curled into fists and up. The fox let go of his defense slowly and carefully sat up again, his eyes darting from the raccoon to the rabbit and then to his surroundings. Indeed, no one seemed to be here besides the girls and now himself. Thinking again about it, if there were pirates, they would've attacked already, which raised the question: what were they doing here all alone? It would have to wait because right now they were making the questions.

"Who are you and what do you want? Answer or... the mop goes down again!"

"I rather avoid further violence since I am surprisingly in disadvantage. Ahem, my name is Miles Richard Prower, but you may call me just Miles. All I want is to reach the coast and get back to my shop with the supplies I have on by ship. Now, may you forgive my boldness, but I only went into that direction because I saw a bright light. Can you explain me what it was?"

Now a little less defensive, the girls thought if they should tell Miles the whole dimensional jumping thing. Considering the last time, they decided to take another way and tell him the truth. It could be hard for him to believe but at least they would not have to go with fake stories. Having that decided, they told him about how they ended here and where they came from, the whole adventure on Moebius, the need to find a power source for the Aleatory Probabilistic Generator and the universe hopping thing. Miles took his time to let all the information sink in and then got up and dusted himself off, having his thoughts on the whole story set.

"Well, indeed an incredible story. I'd recommend that you two avoid telling everyone about this, unless you want to end tied on a trunk over a fire pit. That said, it's not the first time I hear about someone from another world, which makes me question if this is common sense on another worlds"

"Well, it's kind of common back at my home, mister Miles"

"The same can be said from my place, mate"

"Fascinating. Anyway, I beg your pardon about the ruckus I caused. I jumped to conclusions and thought that you were hostages of a group of pirates or something like that"

"We kinda thought the same thing. Still being used to the alternative versions of practically everything"

"Well then, I shall go otherwise I won't reach the bay during the day. Farewell miss…"

"Cream"

"Marine"

"Farewell then, miss Cream, miss Marine"

"Actually, we could use some help"

"We need to reach the land too, and starting on a populated place will make things a little bit easier"

"Then let us go already. Leave it to me"

Miles jumped back to his boat and went back to his original course, being followed by the girls on the Ocean Tornado. The small ship wasn't much fast, but in time they reached the bay, a large and rounded portion of the sea that invaded the continent. The entire circumference of this almost circle had lots of construction, mostly shops and piers to dock ships. Speaking of ships, there were lots of them at the bay. Really, a lot of them. Ranging from small frigates and little fishing boats up to huge and imposed galleons, they went to a side to another, entered and exited the bay.

On the coast, the many decks were filled with people as they bought and sold their commodities. Once docking, the girls rushed after Miles as they crossed the busy wooden decks and the frenetic crowd constantly shout-talking. They must've lost Miles from sight at least four times but in due time the managed to get out of the commotion. Miles paid some workers from the docks to unload his ship and then went inside a huge warehouse, at least fifty feet tall, with large doors in the front and wide windows on the sides. They followed him and saw the inside of the building, a similar ambient as nearly everyone was chatting in a considerably high tone. On the ceiling huge candle chandeliers hung and illuminated the ambient with a bright and warm yellow. Big mezzanines formed a second floor were lots of cabinets stood side by side. On the end of the warehouse, large wooden tables with people sitting around them. The people here seemed to be much more wealthy than the crowds outside.

"What is this place, mister Miles?"

"This is the Great Trade House of Commerce. A place where we can sell, buy and negotiate any kind of product, not necessarily in that order. I'm here to trade some items that I brought"

They headed to a cabinet on the second floor, on the right side, and Miles called the owner. A fat bald man appeared, wearing a white,slightly dirty shirt and brown pants. They greeted and chatted quickly, and just as quickly they came down to business.

"So, do you have the cargo?"

"Yes, it's being brought here as we speak. What about my part?"

"Right here". The fat man went back at his cabinet and pulled a cart full of dark grey and dull rocks. "Fifty pounds of raw iron ore for four barrels of wine plus ten percent of the value in gold"

Miles frowned at the man and pushed the cart back to him.

"We agreed in a hundred and twenty five pounds, and this ore is anything but worth the price. I bet most of it are just common rocks! Who do you think you are tricking?"

Now the man held a frown on his face, having his arms crossed over his chest.

"It's you, my lad, that is mistaken. This ore is from the finest quality and it is worth the price it costs"

"This is a poor quality material and you know it. I won't buy a single gram of it"

The man hovered above Miles and pointed a finger to his face, his expressions very menacing. The girls on the back even took a step aside.

"We have a deal, boy, and you better come up with your part if you don't want any trouble"

Miles pushed the man's hand with his own and stepped in, making the fat guy back up.

"We sure have a deal, and I have three copies of it well documented and stored. Now, if you don't want your competition and the crown's collectors to know about your 'outside' sources, you will give me my hundred and twenty five pounds of QUALITY ore and keep your barrels of wine. I can cause you a lot of trouble and you won't like it, I tell you that"

Miles had the man cornered, literally. Having his back on the wooden wall of the cabinet, the bald man let out a frustrated sigh an went inside it again, returning with a larger cart, completely full with black rocks with a slight metallic bright. Miles held one on his hand, inspected it and nodded in approvement, putting it back on the cart. A minute later one of the men he had hired at the pier appeared and pointed to some barrels at the entrance of the warehouse. Miles then bided his farewell to the bald man and motioned to the hired one to bring the cart with him.

Marine and Cream followed them close by, impressed with the skills and boldness of the fox. As they walked off the warehouse and through the streets, they kept watching the surroundings. Shops and people selling all kinds of things, and most of them discussing about something, be it the price or legitimacy of any product. Miles noticed their looks and started another conversation.

"Heh, merchants. Always trying to get an advantage. But he should know better than try to fool me on a matter of ore quality"

"Are you an specialist on it, Miles?"

"I work constantly with it Cream"

"What do you work with?"

"I'm a blacksmith. Since my childhood I have been working around a furnace and an anvil"

Oh, so you make swords and stuff? Nije job, mate!"

"Not only swords and weapons. I deal with any kind of metalurgic job, but indeed most of it is making blades, shields and armours. It's a family business…"

"And we are heading to you shop now?"

"Yes. My house and workplace stay in Camelot. We are going to rent a carriage to carry the ore and my other stuff"

They reached another part of the city, equally full and agitated, but it seemed more like an elite place. They got to a carriage and the hired men loaded it while they got up in the passenger's seats. During that time, Cream held a thoughtful expression, as if she was trying to remember something. She kept like that a good part of the trip. Marine noticed but didn't bother to ask, sure that sooner or later the rabbit would voice her thought by herself. Miles, on the other hand, only now noticed it and didn't spend time waiting to ask.

"Cream, do you have something in mind?"

"Oh, nothing important. It's just that… something that you mentioned caught my attention for some reason but I can't tell why"

"And what would that be?"

"Your home city, Camelot. I think I heard it in somewhere before…"

"Well, I suppose Camelot is famous even among other worlds. It's a pretty big and powerful city after all"

"Meh, doesn't ring any bells for me though"

"Really? It's hard to see someone that never heard the stories about the king and this kingdom"

"What king, mate?"

"Well, there was a king before… he was known on all the lands and many trembled in awe and fear upon hearing his name. He was King-"

"Arthur!". Cream shouted suddenly, clapping her hands together.

"So you know him, Cream?"

"Yes, but in the way you are thinking Marine. What I know are the stories about the king Arthur and the sword stuck on a rock. We are on the world of the Knights of the Round Table!"

"Oh… never heard of"

"Excuse me but, stories? What do you mean?"

"How can I say it, Miles… back at my world, Arthur, the knights and the magical sword were only stories and legends"

"Hmm. Well, it wouldn't be the first time I heard something like that…"

"Really?". Marine inquired. He would answer her right away, had they not arrived at the city, Camelot. As they passed by the streets, the girls looked at the old fashioned houses, for them at list. It was like a time travel back to the Middle Age, which was actually pretty close to their present situation. At the distance, the tall and imposed castle, with large walls surrounding it and high towers. They stopped in front of a small rather large house, which had the front pretty much like a garage. Inside it were all the things needed to work as a blacksmith: furnaces, hammers, sharpening stones, anvils, and lots of already done swords, shields, armour pieces and many more metallic crafts. They didn't have experience but they could tell Miles was very skilled, as much as Tails was a true genius.

The men unloaded the cargo and Miles thanked them after handing them a bag full of golden coins. It was almost dark so the young fox offered for the girls to stay at his house, which they gladly accepted. He feared that his accommodations were quite rudimentary since he spent most of the time working, just like his counterpart. The girls didn't bother thought, Marine in particular stating that she had much worse things for a bed. The night came in and so sleep to the two girls. Miles kept putting some things in order before he went to sleep.

The night passed by and the sun raised again, illuminating the houses and the great castle. A sweet smell came to the girls noses, slowly waking them up. They got from the bed they shared and got to their feet, stretching and shaking of any remainings of sleepiness. They followed the scent through the house and found Miles in the kitchen, stirring a small stewpot. They came to his side and looked inside the pan, seeing a white cream. Upon seeing they were awake he greeted them.

"Good day girls. Are you up to porridge, because that's basically the only thing I know to cook…"

The girls let out a small laugh. The similarities with Tails didn't stop to show up. Cream remembered of that one time she found a pile of cups of instant noodles and her friend asleep on his desk, covered in sheets of paper. And of course they didn't mind, since he already did a lot for them. They sat on a small table with some bowls filled with the porridge and started to eat, enjoying the sweet taste of the food. As soon as he finished, Miles threw his bowl at a large bucket full of water and went to the workshop, having already lit the furnaces. The girls took their time to finish as well and then followed him, first Marine and then Cream, who decided to wash the dishes. They stood at the doorway and observed the busy fox going from a side to another, melting the raw iron ore, then heating some ingots he already had, then looking at his drawings and models, and repeating all over again, sometimes stopping to sell a sword or repair a damaged helmet.

"Geez, good thing he seems to be a multitask guy. I would end crazy if I had to do all this stuff alone"

"Tails always tried to do a lot of things together to win some time, but he always ends completely exhausted"

"Yeah, he is in a frenzy. Does he work like that every day?"

"I think that we cannot count on him to help us. I mean, we can't possibly ask for him to stop his work just because of us…"

"Same here. Well then, let's walk around while we figure out a way to recharge the generator"

"Something tells me that it won't be as easy as last time"

"You call THAT easy?"

They left the workshop and walked through the stone paved streets, looking around and memorizing some references to come back later.

"Yes, we walked through a desert and yes, we had to deal with rebel me and crazy you-"

"And with super green Sonic"

"Yeah, that, but at the end we had an limitless power source from a legendary gem handed to us. I don't expect any more Chaos Emeralds copies to fall from the sky"

"I get your point. Do you have the tPhone with you?"

"Yep. Already turning the tracker on"

With the energy source locator on, they kept walking through the town, doing their best to ignore the strange looks that most of the people gave them when they passed by. That was expected since they were from another completely different world, but still was a little embarrassing to draw so much attention. The morning went on pretty much like this, the girls making a huge tour around Camelot trying to find a trace of any power source, talking and sometimes laughing at the uncommon scenes they had seen so far, like when they crossed a large open square and spotted an 'wizard' making pigeons on a cage disappear. They just looked at him from behind and spoted the birds on a hidden cage under the table he was. There was also an street circus with some jesters falling on purpose and juggling with anything they could toss in the air. They even got a couple of apples for free after helping a cat out of the roof, as Cream just flew up, grabbed the little kitty and handed him to the fruit stand lady.

Near the edge of the town, a small blip came from the tPhone. Cream and Marine immediately got their eyes focused on the smartphone, staring at the blank screen. Maybe it was just a fluctuation on the reading, or they were hearing things- nope, another blip and a faint wave pattern coming from the corner of the screen, meaning that something distant was emitting energy. They looked at each other for an instant and wide smiles crossed their lips. Without thinking they dashed away, heading for the direction indicated by the radar. Back at the workshop, Miles was done working on some of the raw materials he had bought. He wiped the sweat on his forehead, an representative act since he was completely covered in it because of the furnaces. Heading inside the part that was his house, he looked for the girls, finally giving up in denying his stomach the well deserved food it was begging.

"Cream, Marine, what do you think of eating at that inn we passed when we arrived? I only have bread and a piece of ham… umm, forget about the ham! Girls? Hello?"

He looked at the bedroom and at the kitchen, the only two rooms of his house if you don't count the workshop and the storage. He didn't see when or where they left, then again it was logical since he knew how oblivious to his surroundings he became while working.

"Well, it seems that I will have to look after them. It cannot be too hard, a lot of people must have seen them. Oh, better not let this bread get musty. The ham alone is already a big loss…"

While eating the bread, Miles left his place and started to ask people about the two girls. As he imagined, it was easy to recognise them since they wore very distinct attires. Meanwhile, already on the outskirts of Camelot, Cream and Marine were on a light jog through the grass fields and wheat farms. As they moved forward the signal became slightly stronger, now blipping on a constant pace. The more they got away from the town, more and more trees appeared in the landscape. The wheat fields soon gave place to a taller grass and, further ahead, tall and large trees. The open fields turned into a dense forest, shaded by the thick tree tops. They slowed down to a walk as they went along the road between the trees, going deeper at the forest. Their surroundings gave an eerie and kind of mystic sensation, as many beams of sunlight crossed the dense canopy of the trees, contrasting with the shaded environment. There was little to no sound around them, something strange for such an untouched area of the nature. The path they were following became more and more tortuous, making wide curves left and right, each time going with the flow of the terrain instead of of just going through it. The path gradually disappeared, fading away in the forest.

They now tracked the signal, still weak but steady, following natural trails in midst the forest, making their way through bushes and branches. Marine looked up but could not tell what time of the day it was. They completely lost track of time, but felt like they were walking for hours and yet they were not hungry or tired. The air around them felt extremely refreshing and the more they kept going, more motivated and lighten up they felt, as if the forest was inviting them to go further. In fact, even living here would be something nice. The forest was beautiful in it's own way, full of exotic flowers and now that they were pretty deep inside it, they could see and hear the fauna all around. Every single detail, from the small drops over the leaves to the little green worm chewing a pink petal on the ground, looked magical, and they could not get tired of it. Cream and Marine soon stopped to worry about the tPhone, just taking the views surrounding them as if in a kind of hipnose trick.

Suddenly, a faint noise like a flute sounded, followed by a gentle breeze that blew through the threes, shaking the leaves lightly. Cream broke out of her dazed state upon hearing the blip of the energy tracker. For a brief moment it registered a peak of energy, not really strong, but much higher than the previous readings. For the first time since they entered the forest, Cream felt the clouds nebulating her mind fade away and she managed to think straight, also noticing her friend's state and shaking Marine a little. The raccoon seemed to wake up and looked ariu d with a confused expression.

"Where… where are we, Cream?"

"I don't know… for some reason I can't remember how did we get here, neither the way back…"

"Ugh… it's like I was going on autopilot or something… as if…"

"Something was luring you…?"

"...you too?"

Cream nodded with a worried look. They started to understand the situation. Something was up in this forest, and whatever it was it managed to trick them for what seemed to be hours. Who knows what other tricks there could be, just waiting to be casted at them. What dangers could be lurking behind the trees? The worry on their minds started to grow to unhealthy proportions, turning into fear and almost panic. They didn't know where they were or how to get out of the forest, all by themselves. They still had some apples but they would not last forever, and the exotic vegetation could be poisonous. They left without warning Miles so it could take a long time for him to notice and try to go after them! What if they were attacked by an wild animal? What if they got injured? There was no way to call for help!

On the verge of a panic attack, that faint flute noise sounded again, followed by the same gentle breeze, coming from the same side of the forest. As it blew by them, they felt more calm, as if the wind had washed away all their worries. Once again the feeling of their clouded minds clearing came, making it clear to the girls that this forest had an effect over their minds. The blip on the radar caught their attention and they finally looked at it, seeing the direction of the energy peak. Had they payed a little more attention before, they would notice that the peak of energy came from the same side the wind blew from. Deciding to not let the forest get on their heads again, they returned to tracking the energy source.

The way thought was pretty much harder to go through, being full of irregularities, rocks, thick bushes and twisted branches, as if everything around them was on an effort to stop their progression. Only five minutes out of the natural trails and the girls were already exhausted, breathing heavy and feeling their legs a little numb. The hunger soon made its way, forcing them to eat the apples, and even though they had four for each, their stomachs kept feeling empty. The need to stop and sleep washed over them, making the soft looking grass on the ground almost irresistible. Every ten steps or so a grassy spot appeared, illuminated by a beam of light crossing the thick canopy of the trees, forming a very convidative bed warmed by sunlight. The only thing keeping them awake was the steady sound or the radar, but even this was starting to seem useless. Just before they gave up, the breeze blew again, the flute in the wind much clear and easy to hear now. Small fireflies appeared in the air, giving the shaded forest a faint golden glow. Suddenly, Marine noticed a small trail through the trees that she was sure wasn't there before. She tugged Cream, who looked at the tPhone to look at the signal. Coincidentally, it pointed to the way the trail lead.

This trail felt different from the previous ones, not giving them the magical feelings they felt before. There was no revigoration nor tiredness, just the steady glow of the fireflies as they kept going. The trail soon widened into a path with some rocks on the ground which were almost flat, l as if hand made. More and more fireflies came flying around them, increasing the golden glow. The path now almost straight lead them to a clearing, letting the girls look at the sky for the first time since they entered the forest. It was almost night, the sky ranging from an strong orange to a faded red and a dark blue coming from the horizon. This gave them a clue of how much time they spent here, which was crazy because all this time the beams of light didn't change the angle, color or intensity, always keeping perfect at these conditions. Cream looked down and spotted a pile of bit stones on the other side of the clearing. The breeze blew again and she was sure that it came from the stone pile. A closer look at it revealed that there was a hole on it.

Cream looked at the radar again an it pointed towards the stone pile. She and Marine walked to it and saw that the stone pile was actually an entrance to a cave. The signal became slightly stronger, now appearing on the screen. They looked at each other and then entered the underground cave. The descending was quite easy as they went through the stairs carved into the stone with the tPhone's flashlight to see where they were stepping. It only took them five minutes of slow descending to reach an doorway carved into the stone. As they passed by the tall round portal, they found a huge round cave, illuminated by big light blue crystals on the ceiling, which emitted a bright light. On the center of the cave, something took their attention: a large rock table with some inscriptions around it. They walked for it and got surprised and a little bit disappointed at what they found.

Over the table rested a short sword and an round small shield, covered in layers of dust. The sword's handle was brown, with the guard and the end of it in a metallic gray. The shield was also brown except for the details on the borders and the cross in the middle, which had the same color of the sword's guard.

"So, what are looking at? Doesn't look like a power source for me"

"Yeah, I don't think so either. Guess I was expecting something more like a magical stone or something like that…"

"What is it that every object that holds a great power has to be related to a jewel?"

"I can see why miss Rouge likes gems so much, hehe"

The girls kept looking around for the power source but they didn't find a single clue about it. The signal wasn't strong enough to have the precise location so the tracker only pointed that it was in this cave. Cream even checked if the crystals could be used but they were just luminous. Mentally and physically tired, they sat on the ground in front of the rock table, back to back.

"Do you think we can throw wood or coal inside the generator?"

"Let's see what the manual says… ummm, apparently not since the generator does not 'transform an energy type into another one'. It also says that we would need tons of coal or wood to charge it up…"

"So we are stuck in this dimension?"

"I don't even know if we will manage to get out of this forest Marine, let alone jump to another dimension?"

"Don't you mean home?"

"We thought we would jump back to home but we ended here. Who knows how many times we will have to jump until we go back? We could keep going at this for our entire lives without jumping at the right one"

"Now that's completely depressing"

" _~sigh~_ I know, it's just that… I guess the forest messed up with my head a little"

"I got it. Anyway, you are just being realistic. Maybe, if we get lucky enough to get out of here, Tails could contact us again and think of a way to charge the machine"

"Yeah, like a water mill powered motor generating electricity"

"I can already see it. Just eight years and we are good to go!"

"Still better than chopping down an entire forest, and much easier"

"What if we asked Miles to show us the legends of this world? We could pretty much find one and our problem was solved"

"That's the normal plan anyways. Find legendary item, win final battle, save world, hehe"

"Haha, I even ask myself why Eggman Nega and the pirates even tries knowing how it will end?"

"Right? Hahaha"

They laughed at these situations that always followed the same pattern, like some kind of multiversal joke, repeated over and over. The irony about it was that they didn't escape from it either, remembering what happened last time. In they now lighter mood, they didn't notice a shadowy figure coming from the ground in a swirl of light blue fog. Only when they heard a strange low growl that they turned around to see the ghostly figure facing them. It was slightly translucent, bluish in color and the legs didn't existed down from the knees. The specter looked like a knight, using a helmet, armour plate and gauntlets, but the latter had the hands bigger, the fingers sharper, forming very menacing claws. It's eyes burned with bright red flames through the helmet's eye slits.

Insert Mystic Mansion theme - Sonic Heroes

A cold shiver through their spines and they jumped up, taking several steps back until they leaned on the rock table. The looks on their faces could be described as a mix of fear and nervousness, with a hint of 'I am going to faint'. There was a brief moment of silence before the ghost growled again and rushed at them. The girls screamed and ran away in opposite directions. The ghost made a turn and followed Cream around the cave, swinging his claws at her and missing by inches. She ran straight to the wall of the cave, jumped and stepped on it, making a backflip and taking flight. The specter just came across the wall, leaving a thin layer of ice.

"Where did it go?!"

" _~gasp~_ Behind you, Marine!"

The phantom came from the ground right behind Marine, who yelled and jumped forward, dodging an horizontal attack. It dashed after Marine as she ran around the cave. She made a leap over the table and turned around to face the ghost. It tried to reach her around the table and she ran around too. They spinned around it left, right, left, left again, right, until the phantom roared and float jumped over it, aiming at Marine, who ducked and jumped away from him, just to be grabbed by Cream. They stood in the air looking at the ghost.

"Do you think he can reach us here?"

The ghost faded into the ground and seconds later he came out of the ceiling a little bit far from them, claws pointed towards them and screaming.

"You had to ask, Marine?!"

Cream dived just in time to dodge the ghost, which made a turn and followed them. Cream got near the ground and made a sharp turn up, which the vhost didn't manage to follow, but he just faded into the ground and reappeared on one of the walls chasing after them again. Though used to lift a LOT of extra weight (A/N: looking at you Big), to Cream, flying was proving very difficult since the specter after them seem to get tired or bored of chasing them, forcing the rabbit to make very tricky maneuvers in order to avoid the danger and carrying Marine just to add up to the pile.

Going higher again, she was pretty close to the ceiling. Cream moved around the crystals trying to lose the ghost. If they could have at least a little breach, she could dive at the entrance of the cave and get out without the phantom going after them through the forest. The forest itself would be a really serious challenge so they could not risk having the creature on their heels. She made a sharp turn around a bigger crystal and held on the smaller tips coming from the main structure, helping Marine to do the same. They made all the possible to keep silent, Cream being a little short of breath. The luminosity up there barely let them see a thing around them, but the darker aura of the ghost pointed his position as they could see it through the glassy crystals.

The specter vanished from their view and after a minute Cream was getting ready to make her dive, but before she could give a signal to Marine, the raccoon screamed. Turning around Cream found the ghost right after them, upside-down and coming from the ceiling. The sudden move made Marine loose the grip of one of her feet and when she tried to hold on the crystal tips, they cracked and broke, letting her fall from it. In an instinctive reflex Cream let go of the crystal and used her legs to gain speed and reach her friend. She grabbed Marine's hand right in time to avoid major injuries when hitting the rock table at the center and rolling to the ground, but still the impact made their legs a bit sore. The ghost floated down and nearly above them, standing with his arms and claws open in a menacing stance. Sitting on the ground and with no other escape route or options, they just backed away as it floated towards them, until Marine bumped her hand on the shield that was over the rock table. They knocked it and the sword when they landed.

The ghost raised it's arm and made his attack at the girls. Without thinking, Marine grabbed the shield and held it in defence, holding at the borders while they screamed in fear. Some seconds passed and she dared opening her eyes, feeling too much alive for the current situation. With a confused look she scanned her body and looked at Cream, who also held a confused look on her face, then both looked at the phantom floating over them. They could swear, if it wasn't for the closed helmet and dark aura they would see the confusion on his face too. The ghost roared and lashed at them again, and Marine responded by screaming and lifting the shield up again. The small shield completely nullified the attack and a faint light shone in form of a sphere around them very briefly, like some kind of force field. Roaring in fury again the specter started a barrage of lashes at the girls, only to have all his attacks blocked by the shield Marine was holding up. It tried to hit them around the shield but the force field still acted, protecting the girls from all angles. He even tried to pierce and trespass the barrier but failed miserably.

Now having some time to recover from the shock, the girls stood up and nodded to each other as they walked towards the entrance portal, Marine always holding up the shield and turning around to face the ghost as it moved around, just to be sure he would not get them off guard. Unfortunately, just a few meters away from their exit, the ghost let out a loud scream and his hands got engulfed into a lighter shade of blue. He flew ahead of them and lashed upwards at the air, creating a wall made of blue ice crystals. He turned around to face the girls and roared screamed again, charging at them with his ice claws. The attacks didn't reach them but the ice was starting to accumulate around the force field, impending them from moving. Marine lowered the shield and the field dissipated, but she quickly held it up again as the ghost tried to strike them at this breach. They moved back to the center of the cave on this cycle, to a point where the ghost would keep flying around and striking the shield until a thick layer of ice formed and Marine had to undo the protection, barely making it again before he got to them. With the escape route blocked and the ghost keeping them at this thigh spot, it was a matter of time until they got caught, and the other possible solution was to defeat the ghost, but how to do so?

At that moment, Cream stepped into something. Looking down she found the short sword that was together with the shield. A light bulb shone on her mind.

"Marine, look at this. This sword was together with the shield"

"Yeah, so?"

"The shield completely blocks the ghost"

"...so, maybe…"

"Maybe the sword also affects it"

"I don't know Cream, we are already on big trouble. This is going to be even more risky"

"I don't see any other option right now"

They looked at each other unsure of this choice, another roar of the ghost and a heavy layer of ice on the shield strengthened their resolve. Cream held the sword with her two hand, making her best to imitate the action movies she used to watch with Sonic, Knuckles and Tails. She remembered of the medieval ones where knights dueled, which seemed proper given their current location, and also remembered the futurist science fictions Tails liked so much, with light sabers and things like that. The young rabbit took a deep breath and focused on the spectral knight flying around them. Once it made a turn and went for another strike, Marine lowered the shield and she dashed forward, heading straight at the phantom. It screamed again, holding his claws wide open to slice the girl facing him, but at the last second Cream slided on the ground and held the sword up.

"HAAAAAYA!"

She managed to cut the dead knight across the chestplate. She didn't even made much an effort, but cutted through pretty easily. The ghost roared in what she assumed was pain. Does a ghost even feel pain, like, in the same way a living being does? Well, that answer would have wait since the specter was back on the game and coming for Cream. She quickly got up and braced herself for the attack, holding the sword with strength. When the knight swinged his claws at her, Cream took a step back and ducked the second slash, hitting the left side of the armour and running away as the specter howled again. She made her way to Marine, who lifted the shield up again and only then managed to release a breath of relief.

"So, how are you going?"

"Good, I guess. I don't know why but this sword just goes through this ghost like he's made of butter"

"Isn't it because he is a ghost?"

He didn't manage to go through the crystals, right? Maybe there are things that he cannot go through"

"Let's think about it later, here he comes!"

The knight slashed another barrage of claws at the force field, covering half of it in ice. Marine lowered the shield and the ghost made its way around to get them from behind, only to meet face first a swing of the sword from Cream. It let out a loud howl and floated away, holding a claw to his face. The dark blue mist coming from the ghost flared up wildly, showing that it was pretty angered at the two girls. Cream and Marine stood side to side, facing the knight, one holding the sword in an attack stance and the other ready to raise the shield when needed. Sensing the challenge, the ghost screamed again and dove at the duo once again.

At the nick of time Marine raised the shield, blocking the attack and making him flinch a little, which Cream used as a opportunity to strike, slashing her sword across the chestplate diagonally and upwards. The ghost backed away and faded away, but not through any of the walls, ceiling of floor. The girls looked around waiting for the next attack, which almost got Marine from behind, had it not been for Cream spotting the bluish outline of the phantom's claws and countering the attack with one of her own. Marine raised the shield and it repealed the ghost, cracking some of his already damaged armour. The specter soared in the air and started to send icy wind blades with his claws. Marine ran around blocking with the shield in order to get his attention while Cream flew up at its blind spot and hit it with the sword in a vertical downward slash. The knight roared and went through the ceiling, erupting from the ground shortly after and creating a huge ice spike as he did so. Marine barely managed to roll out of the giant icicle, and as the ghost kept diving into the ground and creating those deadly lances, Cream held Marine and they flew up. As they landed, the knight charged again with his mist flared up, and they countered him the same way before. That sequence repeated for more three times before the armour got completely broken.

At that moment the phantom knight floated at the middle of the cave and started channeling energy, creating an ice vortex around itself. Marine noticed that some of the pieces of the armour were getting back to their places and the visible cuts on its ethereal form were getting smaller and smaller. They would have to go all over again at that rate. Looking at Cream, who also noticed the situation, they decided to try and end it before they got too tired to keep fighting. Marine ran into the vortex with the shield raised, protecting herself from the ice storm, but the ice started to accumulate around it, making it harder to keep moving. At the half way through the storm, Marine got completely covered in ice, forming a frozen dome around the force shield. Cream dashed forward and leapt, landing on the dome and then jumping again. While airborne she used her ears to get a last impulse through the strong and cold wind and targeted at the ghost knight with the sword raised. On a single swift move she spinned herself to avoid a lash of the frost claws and cutted through the ghost's chest, and landed on the floor almost slipping on the formed ice. The storm ceased and Marine, who punched a hole to watch the final blow, broke the ice dome and ran to Cream, who stood still looking at the ethereal form in front of her not making a move. Suddenly, it let out a high pitched scream that pierced through their ears and started twisting and collapsing in itself until it finally imploded, leaving behind a thin blue mist. On the ceiling, the crystals started to shine brighter and they emanate heat not, warming the cold cave just a little bit and still melting away the ice blockade on the doorway. Upon seeing the exit open, the girls wasted no time and rushed through the stairs, still holding the shield and the sword. Once outside, they found out that it was already night time. Despite the enormous lack of light, the clearance was pretty illuminated, crowded with thousands of the golden fireflies. They looked in awe at the scenario surrounding them. Everything seemed covered in gold and the shades of the forest were all gone, as if another power had taken over the place, changing the nature of it completely. While they looked around, a figure came out of the woods, walking towards them, followed by another one quickly tagging along.

The girls noticed their arrival and quickly jumped into a fighting stance, trying to imagine what they would face this time. Cream, however, gasped in surprise once seeing who was coming over. The helmet and gauntlets deceived a little, but she could recognise this person a mile away and in whatever dimension they were. She lowered her sword and ran over to the newcomer, hugging him tightly, much to everyone's surprise.

"Even if from another world, it's really good to see you mister Shadow!"

The black armoured hedgehog shifted back a little, cleary taken aback from the sudden move and unexpected familiarity towards him. He looked down at the young rabbit with eyes filled of joy, clinging at him like her life depended on it, and placed hand on her should, now unsure of what to say.

"Look kid, I am not the person you seem to think I am-"

"I know it mister, I am almost used to this alternative universe thing. Sorry about the space invading. To be honest, my world's Shadow also isn't very fond to hugs and people in general, but I could not help being happy in seeing another familiar face!"

"Umm, Cream, I think it would be better if you let go of him"

"Miles!"

Marine joined the group, still puzzled about Cream's spontaneous actions. She wondered who was the black hedgehog, or rather who it looked alike in order to make the rabbit react this way. Cream let go of the knight, allowing himself to straighten up and introduce properly.

""Ahem. I am Sir Lancelot, knight of the Round Table, loyal servant to the kingdom and to the code of Chivalry. I am here on a mission to rescue two missing children and I won't rest until I fulfill my duty. Now, have you by any chance seen-"

"Sir Lancelot, those are the girls I talked about"

"Oh. Well then, that settles it. Mission accomplished with most success. I told you not to worry about this predicament"

Miles raised an eyebrow but decided not to discuss with the greatest knight in all the kingdom. To the girls was clear that Miles had been busy, and they felt a little guilty for leaving alone without saying nothing and making him worry about them. Honestly they were pretty glad that he noticed their absence so quickly and even asked for the help of a knight to go after them, but some apologies were very needed nonetheless. Marine noticed the amused look behind Sir Lancelot's helmet.

"Umm, sir Lancelot…? Is there a problem here or something?"

"Ah, nothing in particular. I am just… surprised"

"With what?"

"When I got assigned to this task, I expected to go through the Shrouded Forest focusing my mind not to fall for the tricks of this mystical land, then fight some evil being and save the lost children. What I found when I got here was said children safe and sound, and a pleasant but unexpected pool of healing magic, pouring its positive energy into the shadowy forest. I wonder how can this be?"

"Well…". Cream then went on explaining how they got here, all the strange experiences they had going through the forest, the guiding breeze, the cave and the fight against the ghost knight. The last part caught Sir Lancelot's attention and he heard every detail of it, wondering how much of it was exaggerated of made of by the kid. Such was his disbelief, he excused himself and entered the cave to see for himself the facts. He didn't find explicit signs of the battle but could sense a great negative energy fading away as the mana pool almost literally washed it away.

How did the two girls achieved this feat, he had to find out.

Back at the clearing, Cream also had a question herself.

"Miles, how did you find out we were here so fast?"

"It was quite simple. I just walked around a little and asked some people if they saw two young girls with strange clothes. I followed some leads and ended at the outskirts of Camelot. When a farmer told me you two headed to the Shrouded Forest I ran to the castle and asked for help. Sir Lancelot quickly volunteered"

"Hmm, we sure don't go around unnoticed"

"But I am sure there is more to you than the eyes can perceive. Now, we should be heading back to the castle, as my intent is to return you two safely"

Sir Lancelot lead the way through the Shrouded Forest, and the girls could not let go of noticing that the eerie sensations they felt before were now gone, instead getting good vibes and feeling recharged. The trip was actually very long, which made them realise how far they went without noticing, being caught in the spells from the forest.

They reached the border of the forest at the dawn. It was like the sun was greeting them with his light, dispersing all the shadows away. Sir Lancelot had Cream on his back fast asleep while Marine made a huge effort not to stumble on her feet as she walked, yawning and feeling her eyelids very heavy. Miles also showed to be tired, but he was used to have few hours of sleep, sometimes being awake all the night drawing his projects. The knight though didn't seem a little fazed neither showed any signs of being tired. In fact, one could say he was as awake as possible. The curiosity about these mysterious girls kept the black hedgehog really eager to reach the castle and put them to proper rest. He had a lot of questions both for them and for some other person that should have a thing or two to say about this outer-world situation.

As the night veil removed itself from the skies, letting the light blue take place, they reached Camelot Castle, going through a dirt path that lead to the huge gateway in the front. The tower guards noticed the arrival of the great knight and quickly shoved the slumbering gatekeeper to open the heavy pitch black metal gate. They crossed the wide stone bridge and entered the great walls of the castle, now walking through the courtyards. Many soldiers and workers were already up and engaged on their daily tasks, some feeding the horses on the stables, others tending to the gardens, and some even had youths taking lessons in sword combat.

They finally reached the entrance of the castle, it's huge wooden doors slowly opening to reveal the sumptuous architecture and decorations, typical of royal palaces. Sir Lancelot signed for the maid that approached once the doors opened and she walked over to them. He asked for her to help Miles take the two girls to rooms so they could rest properly. At this point Marine gave up and was completely leaning on the fox, with an arm half wrapped around his neck and snoring a little.

The knight put Cream on the cat maid's arms and walked through the main corridor while she led Miles along one of the wings of the castle, going upstairs and reaching the second floor, where the guests rooms were. She decided to choose a room with wide windows and two big beds, in which Cream and Marine were laid down. She then showed Miles his room, and after saying a dozen of times that he could sleep at his home, he gave up and decided to enjoy his good luck. One does not simply stops by the castle and gets a room.

The cat maid returned to the other room, just to check on he girls. The two were fast asleep, now with relaxed faces, seeming to enjoy the soft and comfy beds. Something caught her attention and she could not stop wondering about the shield and sword that the two kids had with them. Even on their asleep state, they didn't let go of them. She kept thinking about it after carefully close the door and head to the maid's rooms.

 **Act 1 complete**

 **There you go. Man, it does feel good to see a chap all up and done. Just some things I want to say, I really, REALLY wanted to make the characters talk in a "medieval" way, but the thing is, english isn't even my natural language and I know by previous tries that I cannot understand am accent that easy (I tried to make Bunny talk like a country girl once and Marine always seemed to be an Australian for me(Is the term "Ausie" offensive? I don't wanna trigger anyone -_-')) so I prefer not risk trigger people further than my grammatical errors already does. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this first chapter. I plan to make semanal posts, but that relies solely on my ability to write during my little free time between work and college. See ya later!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright, this is getting old...**

 **Hello guys, I'm still alive and still writing. At this point I should stop making promisses that I cannot accomplish, but my hope will never die! it isn't for a lack of effort, really. In fact, at some point I just lost myself and could not find a good point to end the chapter, and the more the time went, the closer I was getting to a creativity blackout. But I got a little extra time and managed to end this loooong chapter. I hope it compensates for the equally long wait. Hope you guys enjoy it!**

 **Act 2 Start**

The Camelot Castle was as much impressive inside as outside. The sumptuous architecture, typical of royal palaces, surely made justice to a place of great importance. The ceiling of most rooms were considerably high, the hallways and doorways made arches, the halls were pretty big and open and even the stairs were very wide. Not only the building itself, but the decoration also had this royal look to it. Placed along the hallways and some common rooms were old armours, complete or just pieces of one, shields, hammers, swords, lances and many more things like that. Every single one had a story related to it, about an honored, brave or exemplar knight from the past, or about one that died heroically fulfilling his duty; about memorable battles that seemed to be lost, but turned out in victory because of a clever plan, a demonstration of endurance or even because of a single daring act.

But these were not the only memories registered in there. Mixed with the combat arts, many royal and expensive items were standing, ranging from real masterpieces of art portraying kings, queens, nobles and valorous knights, to representations of tales and great feats achieved by the bravest, smartest and most honored. There were also jewels, vases, old crowns and symbolic items, telling the stories of the royalty along the ages.

Miles, used to waking up very early, was having a tour around the castle. Since they arrived at the castle yesterday, both him and the girls had been sleeping, the fox mostly due to the accumulated lack of proper sleep. Now, as a way to occupy his mind and also know the royal building, be asked one of the maids if he could look around.

A brown dog young woman quickly assigned herself to the task, looking very eager to it. The woman was probably around mid twenties, had short and slightly wavy hair, colored in a darker shade of her fur color. Her eyes were light purple and her ears were triangular, like a german Shepherd. The maid uniform consisted of a long sleeved black dress with white frills at the ends of the skirt and sleeves, and around the neck. The shoes were black with small square heels and there were also mid thigh long white stockings. On the right side of her head was a big blue ribbon tied to a headband, also blue.

After getting the permission of the chief maid, she grabbed the young fox by the wrist and dragged him around the many hallways and rooms of the castle, stopping to explaining a little about the expositions she liked most, which were pretty much every one of them.

"Oh, my name is Alicia, by the way"

"Miles Richard Prower, but just Miles is good for me"

"It is really nice to meet you, mister Prower. Now, let us continue our wonderful trip, shall we?"

Miles got a sort of uneasy smile on his face and scratched the back of his head. After asking for a tour, he felt unable to say no, but the woman was just too enthusiastic about the history of the castle, the kingdom and everything else.

"You… really seem to enjoy talking about all those things…"

"Well, surely! I spend most of my free time studying every single piece of the royal collection and reading the history books at the library. Oh, I MUST show you my favorite tome about the third royal generation. Everyone seems to put the fifth gen on such a pedestal because of the agreement with the East Sea kingdom but there's SO much more the third king has done… oh, and the queen, how I wanted to meet her in person… did you know that…"

And there she went again on her non stop rambling, connecting one topic after another while she dragged the poor fox to the library, where he was sure they would spend a lot of time. A LOT. Meanwhile, on a soft, big and round bed, a little rabbit stirred, finally waking up from her sleep.

Cream slowly opened her eyes, letting the sunlight warm her up. Looking at the high ceiling that she didn't recognize made her wonder where she was, how she got there and many more questions someone disoriented normally do. She sat on the bad and looked around, first sighting Marine on a bed on the other side of the room, which tranquilised her a little, now knowing that her friend was safe. The next thing she noticed was the room itself, a very large and expensive looking one. The windows were tall and rounded at the top, the main glass was crystalline and there was a stained glass border around it that filled the room with colors as the morning sun shone through the three windows. Getting up and walking towards it, she looked out and saw a big courtyard and great walls around the entire location. On the ground, many workers doing their job, and what caught her attention, many knights training with each other and teaching younger one how to use swords or ride horses. That's when she remembered how she got here. They were at the Shrouded Forest, Miles and a medieval version of Shadow appeared and brought them back, and at some point she fell asleep. Now that things were clarified, she walked over to the other bed where Marine was sleeping and snoring a little.

"Marine, wake up". The rabbit gently pushed the raccoon, calmly waking her up. Marine stirred a little and mumbled something in a low tone.

"...just a few hours…"

"Marine, wake up. We have things to do". Her stomach grumbled a little. "Breakfast would be one of them"

Ears perked up and Marine half opened one eye, turning right to see her rabbit friend. She sat up and let a yawn as she stretched her arms.

"~yawn~ yeah, breakfast would be nice"

She got up and they walked to the door. Just when Cream held the knob, something came back to her mind. The sudden stop also made Marine remember something, as they looked at each other and rushed back to their beds, looking around desperately. They flipped the bedsheets, looked under the beds, on the chests and wardrobe that were at the room, not finding what they were looking for. They looked at each other again with terrified faces.

"The sword/shield is gone!". They said in unison. Rushing back to the door, they were about to run around in a frenzy when it opened to reveal a black and white cat maid, using a big white ribbon on the right side of her head. Her fur was white on her muzzle and apparently down to her chest and belly, while the fur above her eyes, on the ears, arms, legs and tail were black. Her calm emerald green eyes made the girls freeze in place, looking at the almost void of emotion face ot the maid. After a minute of silence the maid decided to speak.

"Well, I see you are already up and full of energy. That's expected since you had been sleeping since Sir Lancelot brought you here yesterday at the dawn. Good morning my ladies"

The maid bowed in a polite and quick way and then calmly walked through the hallway as she spoke.

"I suppose you would like to have something to eat. Please follow me. I beg your pardon but the court cook is still sleeping, so we are going to the maid's kitchen, if you don't mind, that is"

"Oh, no, it's perfectly fine"

"Yeah, I just wanna get something on my belly"

The maid cat just walked on her steady pace, her hands in front of her and her eyes always facing straight, almost like a robot. They got downstairs and went through another long hallway until they reached a slightly larger wooden door, about ten feet tall and with a big ring knob. The cat opened the door, which let out a little creek sound. She looked at it and spoke in a low tone, as if thinking loud.

"Hmm, needs to be regulated…"

"Excuse me miss"

The maid got knocked off her thoughts as Cream tried to catch her attention. She looked down at the little rabbit with a king of embarrassed face, hold the same expressionless face she had.

"What is it?"

"I never got to know your name. I am Cream and this is Marine"

The always serious maid let a very small slime form into her lips and her expression seemed slightly happier.

"My name is Elizabeth, but most of the people call me Eliza. It's a pleasure to meet you, miss Cream, miss Marine"

The chief maid, a brown bear, came in and placed a heavy hand on Eliza's shoulder, almost making her fall.

"Ah, I see you got them here, Eliza. I beg your pardon, but the breakfast don't starts so soon. The sun just got up and you are already up, that's something to notice. If it doesn't bother you, we from the household start to work very soon so you can eat with us"

"We gladly accept, right Marine?"

"Sure. No need to give us special treatment"

"Oh, but we must. The guests of Sir Lancelot should be treated as himself"

"We appreciate the dedication but you don't need to go so far, really"

"If you say so, miss. Well then, please take a seat and we shall serve the food"

The girls entered the big room. To the left were many long tables with equally long benches, where many maids were already sitting. There was a balcony where the maids formed a line holding plates so they could get the food. To the right was another space with some smaller tables where some of them sat to read, knit or any other thing that they did as a hobby. There was also a big board full of lists of tasks and messages. On the end of the room where a few doors that gave access to the maid's dorms.

Cream and Marine followed Eliza to the end of the line, where the cat handed them their plates. When it was their time, the lady on the balcony gave them some options: rice porridge, wheat porridge, oats porridge and the day's special.

"What is the day's special?". Marine asked curious and not really wanting to eat any of the other options.

"meatloaf". The cow lady on the balcony answered bluntly. Eliza bent a little and whispered something to the girls.

"The special of today is the leftover of yesterday's dinner"

"I'll go with oats…"

"Me too…"

Though their faces weren't the best when the big lady served them a way too generous spoon of the thing, they thanked and moved to take a seat, but Eliza whistled and made a sign to follow her. She went to a door on one of the corners of the big room and opened it, following through a corridor. At some point some windows appeared on the left right side and she just let her food slip from the plate and looked at the girls, indicating that they should do the same.

"Do not worry, the pigs love to eat it"

With relieved smiles on their faces, the girls get rid of the tacky food and kept following the maid cat. At the end of the tunnel was another door, in which Eliza leaned an ear and after a minute knocked out two times and then a third. She waited and after a minute the door opened to reveal a panda wearing a maid uniform but with an apron over it, and with a big yellow ribbon on the right side of her head. She smiled once she saw Eliza and quickly ushered them into the door and closed it right after her. They were now inside a big pantry, full of all kinds of pans, utensils and, of course, food.

"Oh, I see Helga is cooking as usual"

"The same slimy meal, Catherine, just like before you arrived"

Eliza embraced the panda now named Catherine in a quick hug. Catherine then proceeded to look at the newcomers, mostly because of their unique clothes.

"And who would be those two young ladies?"

"Cathy, those are miss Cream and miss Marine. They are guests of Sir Lancelot"

Cathy gasped in surprise.

"Oh my, so they are the mysterious guests Sir Lancelot brought from his last mission?"

"Surely"

"Pardon my bad manners, it's a honor to meet you, my ladies". She bowed to the girls, which once again found themselves kind of embarrassed with this type of treatment. Cream started again to explain that there was no need to it.

"Really, you don't need to be formal. Please lift up"

"Geez, you girls really take this royal thing seriously"

Eliza spoke with a slightly serious tone.

"It is our duty as the household of the royal family. We must have the deserved respect for those above us"

Cathy let out a small chuckle.

"I see that you still stick to the rules, Eliza"

"Well, I am here instead of eating at the maid's kitchen, right?"

"Surely you are a bad maid". She turned to the girls and said in a playful tone. "When I arrived at the castle, she dragged me around explaining all the rules. Every. Single. One of them"

The girls also let out a small laugh.

"It should be common sense to know the rules at your own work". Eliza defended herself.

"Yes, but you know all of them. Not even the chief maid knows them all, but Elizabeth the model maid knows it by heart"

"Let's not talk beyond the necessary. Now Cathy, if you may help us, I believe our guests deserve a better breakfast than slimy porridge and meatloaf leftovers"

Cathy shivered at the menu and quickly made a sign to the other so they would follow her.

"Let me see what is on the menu today. How do you like eggs and toasted bread with cheese? I also recommend orange juice, it is fresh from the tree"

The girls looked at each other and then at the panda and said in unison.

"Awesome!"

"Shhhh. My ladies, we must keep quiet"

As Cathy selected the ingredients she explained that she got transferred to the royal kitchen after getting some recommendations from the chief maid. Apparently she was too talented to be at the household's kitchen, much to the demise of all the other maids, especially Eliza. Once the panda arrived, Eliza received the task to teach her how things worked and from that formed a great friendship, which was why Cathy always cooked something for Eliza when the common options were less than 'friendly' to the taste. Being used to wake up early, the chief cook trusted to Cathy the task of preparing the kitchen and gather all the needed ingredients so they would be as fresh as possible. So it was quite easy to her use the kitchen in the early mornings, and Eliza would wait after the lunch and dinner time to meet Cathy on her free time.

Soon their meals were ready and Cathy served her friend and the girls. As soon as the girls took a bite of the food, their faces lit up in joy. It was pretty simple but at same time incredibly delicious. They made sure to express their feelings as they didn't stop complimenting the panda maid, which made her quite embarrassed.

Once they finished, Cathy took the dishes and washed them quickly. She technically should not use the kitchen alone but there was no problem if the chief cook didn't know. She quickly hugged Eliza and said goodbye to the girls as they went back through the corridor. Back at the main room, Eliza faked that they ate the porridge and returned the dishes at the balcony. With the 'crime' covered, they left the maid's room and walked through the hallways. As they talked, one topic came up, Sir Lancelot. The girls were curious about this version of the Ultimate Lifeform.

"So, Eliza, Lancelot seems to be pretty famous around here"

"To say he is famous is an understatement, miss Cream. Sir Lancelot is the best knight of the kingdom. Many are the tales of his great feats"

"How though is the guy? Does he have a perfect streak of wins or something?"

Well, he does detain the record of consecutive wins within all the knights of the Round Table, but there is more to it than duels. For example, it is told that Sir Lancelot fought and defeated a great dragon by himself"

The girls were pretty impressed. Not only he looked like a knight, he also acted as a legit knight, like he had come out of a book of stories. Then again, the whole world they were in was like a fairy tale. Just before they could shower Eliza with questions, the knight himself showed up, walking down the hallway.

"I assure you that there will be plenty of time to hear stories after we discuss some pressing matters. Now, if you may follow me, there are more people that want to listen to your story"

Eliza dismissed herself and walked away while the girls followed Lancelot to the opposite direction, waving a goodbye at the cat maid. They followed Lancelot through some hallways and came over a tall wooden door that lead to a great room with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling with dozens of candles. In the middle of the room stood a big round table with an golden sword drawn on it. Cream figured out that this was the famous table where the knights of the tales she heard reunited to tell their adventures.

Already sitting on it where a red echidna with an helmet covering his head, the eyeshield that covered his eyes up, revealing a familiar pair of purple eyes. Once hearing the noise of the door opening, the echidna turned to face the black hedgehog with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Ah, greetings my friend. I see you are finally ready to share your tale with us"

"About time you showed up Lancelot. What took your time while you arrived here?"

"Shouldn't you pay some more respect to one of the mightiest knight of the kingdom?"

The other knight sitting at the table was a green hawk, the helmet that only covers his face was also lifted, so his azure eyes were at view. Booth of the knights used gauntlets reaching half of the arms, boots with shin guards, and a chestplate, just like Lancelot. Though the colors of Lancelot's armour were black with some red streaks, while the first knight's armour was in a burnt red and the second had a tinge of beige or light yellow. Lancelot walked inside the room and took a sit besides the echidna, then faced both of them as he spoke, mostly to the one questioning him.

"While I appreciate the praise, I feel the need to remember that some of us actually take on missions instead of slaking of a the castle"

"What did you say, hedgehog?! Do you wish that much to be taught a lesson?!"

"Lamorak, Lancelot, let's keep the peace here". The echidna said holding his hands up as in to separate them, though the table kind of already limited the contact. Fights over the table were out of question. Lancelot motioned to the girls to come over and take a seat, which they did by standing to his side. They felt uneasy under the constant stares of the other knights, something that didn't go unnoticed by the red echidna.

"I suppose some presentations could be a good start. Greetings, I am Sir Gawain, knight of the Round Table"

"My name is Cream"

"Mine is Marine"

The girls gave out a nervous but honest smile to the doppelganger of Knuckles, which he returned with a smile of himself. After hearing a scoff, he elbowed the green hawk, who then faced the girls with an annoyed look.

"I am Sir Lamorak. Now, why don't you just go on and tell us whatever stories you made up- oof!"

"Manners Lamorak. You must show at least some when in the presence of a lady"

"Lady? I don't see any around here beside you"

"How dare you insult the name of Sir Gawain in such a nonchalant way?!"

"I insult those who speak of themselves on the third person!"

"What your tongue, Lamorak! Sir Gawain will not be mocked off!"

"What, want a fight?!"

"Silence, you two!"

Lancelot had to interfere, otherwise the others would start a duel, and this was not the time. In fact, time was of essence right now, as a menacing shadow threatened the entire kingdom. Nonetheless the three knights started to argue and shout at each other, each one trying to have the last word. This, of course, left a big impression on the girls, since they expected more talk about honor and less screaming.

"They are… quite energetic, right Marine?"

"Yeah… that's for sure"

"Don't worry, they soon will stop. Besides, when the time comes, we always stand together"

Another knight entered the room and joined the group. Since they were distracted with the commotion, no one noticed the white colored hedgehog knight in a silvery armour joining them, which startled the girls upon hearing his voice. The rabbit and the raccoon looked back to see who it was and found the knight smiling as he watched the scene. Apparently this was pretty common to happen around here because he had the most peaceful expression on his face. Once Lancelot noticed him, he just knocked on Gawain and Lamorak's heads, putting at least a stop to the argue.

"My name is Galahad, and as you can see, I am a knight of the Round Table. It is a pleasure to meet you, my young ladies". Galahad presented himself and made a small bow to the girls, which said their nes to him too.

Now that everyone had a seat, Lancelot started to tell why they were reunited in this place, though all the other knights knew the reasons.

"Very well, may I begin this meeting. As you know, something has been lurking in the shadows through these lands, something capable of put the entire kingdom in danger. But despite of our efforts in finding its nature or origins, little to no information was gathered. That was until last week, when a letter of Percival arrived at the castle. Only yesterday the wizard brought up the contents of said letter, for she had to confirm the given information"

Lancelot reached on his belt for the letter. As he unfolded it he started to read it. The letter told about the results of an reckoning mission, assigned to Sir Percival, who parted from the castle of Camelot a few weeks ago to find anything related to this upcoming treat. They all had been doing researches and following anything that seemed suspect since the day the royal wizard sensed the menacing force.

Percival reported that during the travel, some places seemed to be under some sort of negative influence. It wasn't noticeable as the presence of the Underworld Knights, but was still detectable. This subtle influence had been spotted on many places after crossing the northern lands of the kingdom, which made Percival conclude that it came from the north, beyond the Shrouded Forest.

"Excuse, mister- sir Lancelot, wasn't in this forest where you found us?"

"Indeed, miss Cream. As I suspected, something in the forest seemed out of place, more than it normally is"

He continued to read the letter. What Percival discovered was that this influence changed not only the land it spread, but all the forms of life within it, the inhabitants included. The effects were so subtle that one could completely change its personality without even noticing. The only way that Percival managed to notice and avoid it was because of her flames, which kind of got out of control, a sign that she was not on her perfect mind state. Only then it became clear to her the extension of the dark influence, giving the soil a cold feeling and warming up the air at the same time. The vegetation seemed completely full of life and at the same time devoid of it, as if it was something beyond real. Not only her perception, but the very flow of time had been altered, going on longer bright days and nearly endless nights. Everything gave out a strange sensation of perfection, which was mostly unsettling.

"Hey, this is what happened to us back a the forest. Do you guys think this dark influence reached out there?"

"That is a good question, miss Marine. Sir Lancelot, could you feel anything different when you were at the forest, since you have a better knowledge of it?"

"In fact, Galahad, I felt something different when I entered the Shrouded Forest along with the young blacksmith, but right before encountering the young ladies, this eerie feeling washed away. Even the natural mystic aura of the forest had been cleaned for some time"

"So I suppose there is a way to remove or prevent the action of this shadow"

"Let's see if Percival can give us an answer, Gawain"

On the last part of the letter, Percival stated that besides all her efforts she could not return those she called 'shaded' people back to normal, neither the land that was stained with the shadow's influence. But something she managed to figure out. Be it an shaded inhabitant, animal, or even the vegetation, they all seemed to react to her sacred sword, becoming more agitated, aggressive and slightly changing their appearance. Due to this, she concluded that whatever it was, this lurking shadow could not stand the mystic aura of the sacred swords, so anything covered with this should be at least resistant to its effects. She wasn't sure thought because many times she found herself struggling to not give in on this obscure force. On a final note, she stated that by the time the letter arrived the castle, she would be making her way back, having some more things to investigate. Biding her farewell, she signed the letter.

Now that all was said and done, the thought on everyone's mind was how to stop this occult and mysterious force from reaching the kingdom. It had been the main mission of the knights for some time to find out why, which was why Percival was travelling beyond the kingdom's lands. Lancelot had just returned from his own travel before Miles came to the castle asking for help. Gawain had been working on the little he found out for almost two weeks. Nothing seemed to fit into this unknown menace, no matter how much they searched at the books of the Royal Library. Out of sudden, something crossed Galahad's thoughts, something that actually made him eager to know the guests of Sir Lancelot.

"Excuse me, my young ladies, but why were you two at the Shrouded Forest all by yourselves? I believe it is common sense that one does not simply walks in there, due to the tricks the forest has"

This raised the curiosity of everyone in the room, besides the girls. Even Lancelot, who had already heard some of their story was eager to further understand the sequence of facts that lead them there.

The girls explained to the knights how this all started. During a confrontation with the infamous doctor Eggman, a evil scientist of their world, they ended as hostages but managed to break free. Unfortunately, an accident happened with a peculiar machine called 'Aleatory Probabilistic Generator', which created an portal to where they had been dragged in. This portal lead them to another world, an alternate version of their own, where they had to face some problems to. After managing to recharge the generator, another portal opened, this time bringing them to this world. Once again they had to find an energy source to charge the machine, and after spending a night at Miles' workshop, they used the tPhone's tracking function to find a power source. That is how they ended at the Shrouded Forest.

"It is hard to believe in your story, I must say. Was it not for Lancelot himself bringing you here, I would say that this was an attempt to fool me"

"I understand your doubt, Sir Gawain. A lot of things happened in a very short time. I don't want by any means to fool with echidnas…". " _He does sounds a bit like Knuckles, hehe"_.

"I already heard that part before and I still cannot believe in it. If possible, I would like to see this highly doubtful machine by myself"

"Sure mate. You all can see it when we find a way to recharge the generator"

"Care to explain how did two kids survived in the Shrouded Forest alone? I am curious about what are you going to make up now?"

This comment lead to another elbow to the ribs from Gawain to Lamorak, which had his expressions as incredulous as possible. Even feeling a little bit intimidated the girls kept telling their adventure so far. They described how they felt near the Shrouded Forest, and Cream explained how they broke out of the spells casted at them. Then came the part where they found the cave, where they found the sword and shield, and fought the ghost of a dead knight. Upon reaching this topic, they asked Lancelot if he had seen the sword and shield, finding out that he took them to the royal wizard. Meanwhile, the other knights were in awe and questioning the veracity of their story. It was unbelievable that two girls alone managed to do this all, then again, why would they come up with such an complex tale? Just to make fun of then? No, Galahad could see the truth in every one of their words, he was sure if it.

"Then show us the sword and shield, Lancelot. I need to see what kind of magical weapon they got to fight a 'ghost'"

Lamorak was starting to get on their nerves and the girls now had a slightly annoyed expression on their faces. Cream noted that his cockiness was equal to Jet's. Luckily they weren't the only ones as Lancelot got up staring daggers at the hawk.

"If you want so much to see it we need to see the wizard. Let's go"

His tone was normal as usual but everyone felt the treat that was the best knight of the kingdom on a bad mood, mainly Lamorak, who shrunk a little on his seat. As they left the room and walked through the hallways of the castle, Galahad got to the side of Cream. Sensing the worry and little anger, he felt the need to say something as he put a hand on her head.

"Don't let Lamorak's attitude leave a huge impression. He is as trustworthy and honored as any of us. He just lacks some manners, mostly due to his temper and self confidence"

"Thank you sir Galahad, it is okay thought. I sort of already dealt with this kind of attitude"

"Someone from your world, I suppose. Also, you can call me just Galahad"

"Yes, he looks like sir Lamorak completely, in appearance and temper"

They laughed a bit and kept walking. With time Galahad also got closer to Marine and the three of them talked about the similarities between the two worlds, also telling the silver knight about the 'wonders' the future had in store. Soon they reached for a tall and large pair of doors that had a big sword and a crown above it carved in the wood. Gawain opened it and they entered a huge round room with four pillars holding the spheric ceiling. The room also had a second floor where they could see hundreds of bookshelves full of thick tomes and old looking scrolls. There was a big chandelier hanging on the ceiling, illuminating the place with a warm and bright yellow light.

As they came in, a hooded figure descended the stairs that lead to the second floor and came to meet them. It removed its hood to reveal a young woman with peach skin, purple long hair fixed in a single braid leaning over her chest, bright blue eyes and elf like ears. She greeted them, her soothing voice contrasting with the worn out looks on her face.

"Greetings my dear knights, it is always good to see you"

"Greetings lady Merlina. It is also good to see you, though I wished to be in a better situation". Lancelot said, pointing out the obvious lack of rest the wizard had as she tried her best to prevent a yawn. She looked at the group and saw the young duo, mostly because they were staring at her with bright eyes. Sensing the building up energy, she decided to speak first.

"Oh, I guess these two are your famous guests, Lancelot. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Merlina, granddaughter of the great wizard Merlin and Royal Wizard of the kingdom"

The knights around them took a step back, letting the girls face the wizard. By the looks on their faces Merlina could tell they were kind of in shock. "Um, may I hear you names…? Or at least know your species? I believe I never saw someone like you". This shook them out of their frozen state. Marine was the first to speak.

"Oh, sorry, my name is Marine. I am a raccoon"

"I am Cream the rabbit. It is a honor to meet you, miss Merlina"

"The pleasure is mine". Merlina said with a gentle smile on her lips. She then faced the knights with a positive yet serious expression, already guessing what was the reason of this meeting. "My noble knights, what brings you here today?"

Lancelot stepped in and picked the letter he received.

"I just shared with everyone the contents of Percival's letter. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to go any further than the theory presented on it. But that is not the reason we came here right now. If you may, there is a desire to see the weapons I brought here yesterday"

Merlina lifted her eyebrows in little surprise with the request. She was sure they came to talk about the occult menace, given the current situation, but in fact, after examining the items Lancelot brought her, she did found something interesting.

"Very well, follow me then"

She came over to a door on the other side of the big room. It lead to a much smaller room, but filled with much more things. There were lots of shelves with multicolored potions and all sorts of items that Merlina probably used on her enchantments, and a crystal hung from the ceiling, giving the ambient a light blue illumination. On a wall, put on a stand was the staff that she inherited from her grandfather, which she modified to fit her better, adding the adorned globe on the tip of it. They walked around the large cauldron at the center and stopped by a long table, where the sword and the shield Cream and Marine got at the cave stood. Everyone looked at the items, eager to discover how two young girls defeated a being from the realm of the dead. They stared at it for a minute straight…

"Is that it?"

… until Lamorak started talking again.

"A short sword and a small round shield? Are you telling me that THIS defeated an spectral knight?!"

"Before you start your scoffing monologue, I must say that I asked myself that before I had a closer look"

Merlina took the sword and held it up, letting everyone look closer at it. She then reached for a wood block over the table and hit it with the sword using considerably strength, but the sword barely went an inch into the block. This surprised everyone, the girls because of the sudden move and loud noise, and the others because of how bad this blade was. Lancelot reached for it, taking the sword from Merlina's hand.

"What? Please allow me". He grabbed the block and tossed him up, dealing a powerful strike on it with the short sword, but again it didn't cut much through the wood.

"It is completely dull"

"It is not only the sword…"

Merlina then took the shield and hit it with a small rock, leaving a deep dent on its surface. Everyone was speechless, Cream and Marine more than the others. By now they were almost sure that the sword and shield had magical properties. As for the girls, it was almost a feat to brag about, defeating a dead knight on their own, but now it seemed impossible, even to themselves, looking at these items that worth less than common equipment. Had they dreamed about the whole fight? Maybe that was the last trick the forest played on them.

Seeing the little ashamed faces of the kids, Merlina took this as her cue to explain what she found so interesting in this apparently worthless weapons. She took the short sword back from Lancelot and the shield from the table, and carried them to the side of a small cauldron, from where she retrieved a small flask with some dark green fluid inside.

"Now, the reason why I got surprised is that somehow, those items have some sort of regenerative property. Observe". Merlina said some words in a strange language and opened the flask, dropping some of it on the shield. The fluid spilled over the surface and once it touched the the table it went through the wood, completely corroding it. Not only the shield remained intact, the dent that Merlina made before just vanished. Now things were starting to get interesting.

"I didn't discovered how it works yet, but depending on the type of damage I try to inflict, the shield repels it completely and recovers from any damage taken before. I didn't try with the sword yet, but I believe it share the same property. Where did you find those?"

Before the girls could speak, a loud and long horn sounded, warning everyone in the castle. "A danger warning. Let's move to the armory, Gawain"

The horn sounded again, two short times. "The retreat signal? What is happening out there?". Galahad asked.

"I don't know but we better be prepared. Merina, we are going to the royal armory. I hope that the Sacred Swords will not be needed, but just in case we are taking them"

"So do I, Lancelot. Good luck knights"

They dismissed and left the room in a rush, leaving the great round room and heading down the hallways to the royal armory, where the Sacred Swords were kept.

"Hey, what about us?"

"There is no need to worry, the knights will deal with the problem, whatever it is. At least I believe in it…"

"Hmpf, left aside again…"

Merlina put a hand on the raccoon's shoulder. "Don't get sad. Even if we are not on the frontline there's still much we can do to help". With that she motioned to the girls to follow them. She left the smaller room and the bigger one, heading on the opposite direction the knights went, with the girls after her. The wizard came up three flights of stairs and walked to a door that lead to an open balcony outside the castle. From there she could see the entire courtyard and front walls of the castle and good part of the town and lands surrounding it. Looking down, she spotted the knights moving to the big gate and outside it, a crowd growing by the minute. The knights stopped at the gate, apparently talking with someone, then they moved to a side gate in order to prevent the crowd from invading the castle.

Merlina then had a worried expression forming on her face, which the girls noticed. Maybe this problem was something beyond the power of the knights.

"Miss Merlina, what do you think is the reason for this crowd over there?"

"I fear that somehow… the occult force lurking around this kingdom lands has finally made its way to us"

"So this crowd down there actually are-"

"Royal Wizard! My lady!"

An brown dog maid wearing a big blue ribbon on her head bursted through the door breathing heavily. The dog maid rushed to Merlina and stopped a bit to catch her breath, leaning her hands on her knees. Both Merlina and the girls held surprised faces. Once she recovered, she got up and started to speak.

"My lady, I have something that the knights told me to tell you. ( **A/N:** this part she talks really fast) ~deep breath~ I was at the town library readingSomeBooksButIWasNotSlackingOrGettingAwayFromWorkBecauseTheChiefMaidSaidThatIShouldFollowTheYoungFoxToHisHouseAndHeLetMeSeeSomeBooksAtTheLibraryButWhenIGotOutThereWereThoseMenTalkingAboutTheKingdomAndPoliticsAndIDidn'tWantToEavesdropButIOverheardThemTalkingPoorlyAboutTheThirdGenerationAndIGotMadBecauseThatIsMyFavoriteRoyalGenerationAndIWasAboutToTalkSomeSenseIntoTheirThickHeadsButThenTheyStartedToSayThatTheKingdomWasGoingToEndInRuinsAndThatItWasAllBecauseThereWasNoKingAndThatTHISWasBecauseOfTheRoyalWizardAndTheyKeptTalkingAboutConspiracyAndSomeOtherPeoplePassingByOverheardAndJoinedThemAndTheyStartedToMakeASpeechAtTheSquareAndThenACrowdFormedAndThenItGotBiggerAndEveryoneWasShoutingMeanThingsAgainstTheWizardAndAgainstTheKnightsAndAgainstTheHouseholdAndWorkersOfTheCastleWhichWasWhenSomeoneSpottedMeAndTheyTriedToGetMeButIRanAwayWithTheBooksIGotBecauseICouldNotLeaveThemAndThenIRanBackToTheCastleAndTheyFollowedMeHereAndIBarelyManagedToEnterBeforeTheGateClosedAndIEncounteredTheKnightsAndWasTellingThemButTheyStoppedMeAndToldMeToComeHereAndTellYouInsteadAnd now here I am. ~deep breath~.

(A/N: I just want to say that I made an effort to white this out).

Merlina looked at the girls with a confused face, which the girls returned equally. She was going to have a chat with the knights.

"Umm, my I know you name, dear?"

"Oh, my name is Alicia, and I am part of the cleaning team. It is an honor to personally meet you, Royal Wizard". She bowed politely.

"Well then Alicia, can you tell us what happened again, starting from why were you at the town?" ~Alicia deep breath~ "No need to rush! Take your time dear…"

Since Merlina and the girls didn't understand much, let's go back in time a little, to early in this morning. While our two dimensional jumping heroes were having breakfast, on a quiet section of the royal library, a certain maid was entertained with too much history books about the kingdom of Camelot. At least too much for the young blacksmith, Miles. The fox had lost the track of time but he was sure they spent a considerable amount of time, time that he could be at his workshop and that could not be recovered. His debts would not get paid by themselves so he had to get back to the forge as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he found himself in a dilemma, since he actually asked for a tour around the castle, but he wasn't expecting a guide so devoted to the history and pretty much everything about the kingdom.

But lady luck finally smiled for him, because just when Alicia was about to open a tome twice as thick as the previous seven, an old sheep lady in the maid's uniform came in the section. She had the usual ribbon on the right side of the head, but this one was green.

"Wasn't you supposed to be cleaning the hallways expositions, Bokwoorm?"

Alicia knew that voice pretty well, after all the old lady always rebuked her whenever she got caught reading the books instead of putting them on their places. Alicia flinched a bit and her ears bent down a little as she heard her last name. This was a bad thing, specially coming from the librarian. She slowly looked up from her book with an uneasy smile and faced the calm yet serious face of the old lady. Her expression thought softened and opened up in a small smile, and then the old lady ran her hand over Alicia's head.

"Reading the books instead of keeping them as usual. I should know that you keep them at your heart rather than at the shelves"

"Greetings miss Cloushion, it is been a while". Alicia said in a happy tone.

Miles didn't understand much of what was happening. The moment he saw the lady he thought they were in trouble, considering the way she called Alicia, but they seemed to be long related friends. This left him with a question or two on his head.

"So, what brings you here today Alicia? Of course are the books but tell me, who is this young fox with you?". She inquired looking to Miles, having another smile on her face. "You DO remember that is not allowed to the maids to bring their boyfriends to the castle, right?"

Miles got his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape while Alicia frantically wave her hands and had in negation. The old lady laughed a bit and told her to keep a low tone since the younger maid started to spill explanations at high speeds and volume. Alicia always reacted that way when she was nervous, a state easy for her to get, and miss Cloushion found it simply adorable. Once the maid calmed herself, Miles took the opportunity to introduce himself.

"Hello, my name is Miles Richard Prower. I am a blacksmith invited here by Sir Lancelot"

"Oh, so you are one of the guests of Sir Lancelot?"

"Well, not exactly. He came to ask for help and Sir Lancelot took the task, but the guests are still sleeping on their room. Miles is a friend of them"

"We just met some days ago, thought"

"And how, may I ask, you ended at the library with Alicia Bokwoorm of all people?"

Alicia scratched the back of her head. Looking back a little bit, she pretty much dragged him around the castle talking non stop and now they were at here, because this was her favorite place. She didn't think much about what he really wanted to see or where he'd like to go.

"I kind of asked to see the castle and Alicia offered to show me around. She showed a lot of things. I MEAN it"

"Yes, I know that pretty well"

"Hehe… guess I got carried on…"

Miles then raised a question.

"Forgive me but how did you know each other?"

"Oh, that. Well, I was at the royal service team with Eliza, but since I loved books so much she helped me to change to the library team, which has miss Cloushion as the leader. Later on, I got transferred to the cleaning team because…"

"Because she kept reading the books instead of putting them on the shelves and took lots of them with her when she left for the maid's dorm"

She laughed nervously as she scratched the back of her head. After putting the books back on the shelves Alicia and Miles left the library, walking down the hallways. She got on her fan mode again and started to explain the pieces of the exposition, but was cut off by the chief maid, who came already complaining that she was too much caught in this "tour". The chief maid asked if Miles would stay for the breakfast, sensing that the young fox wanted to be elsewhere since his eyes darted left and right. The blacksmith thanked the offer but said that he had some things to attend. As a last task, the chief maid told Alicia to accompany him back to his house and then return immediately to do her already late chores.

The walk to the town was quiet, Alicia no longer having anything to explain the historical details. As they went through the slightly busy streets, the maid spotted the public library, getting her on fan mode again. She held Miles by the arm, stopping him on his tracks, talking at high speeds something about going inside. Miles said that he was fine and that she could go to the library if she wanted to. With a big smile on her lips she dashed and entered the library, leaving the fox free to go back to his workshop.

Though she was dying for spend the entire day looking for new titles, Alicia knew that she would be in big trouble if she didn't come back quickly, so she just borrowed some books and left the library. Just when she reached the street, she heard some old men say the word "kingdom", which was enough to make Alicia perk up her ears with interest. Now, she knew that it wasn't nice to overhear someone's talk but the curiosity got the best of her. Luckily her ears were pretty good so she didn't have to approach much. What she heard was going by these lines:

"The kingdom is on the verge of bankruptcy, I tell you that"

"Stop throwing plagues you old fool. We all can see it, but I am sure that the royalty can do something about it"

"If there WAS a royal family, you mean. Ever since king Arthur disappeared the whole land has been going down the hill"

"By 'disappeared' you mean killed. I bet it was the doing of the witch on the castle"

"Shhh, don't offend the Royal Wizard. Some say that she knows everything that happens on Camelot"

"Nonsense. Even if she could, she would not dare do a thing"

"Are you sure about that?"

"Of course. Even the witch isn't such a fool to go against the public opinion"

"But what about the rumors coming from the north. Maybe she is acting undercover"

"If that is the case then we need to do something"

"What can we do? I say we should bring this matter to the knights"

"No my friends, the knights no longer serve the kingdom, but only the traitorous witch"

"Don't you think that they could be under a spell?"

"I wish it was the case, old friend, but they are sacred knights, immune to any kind of magic"

"Really?"

"So tell the tales. This leaves to us citizens to bring justice upon this mad woman who resides at the castle"

"Then count me on it"

"Hey, what are you talking about…?"

As they spread the word to the people passing by, a growing commotion started and more people manifested their dissatisfaction, building up a dangerous tension on the air. Soon the square in front of the library was flooded with people and the old men talking on the beginning piled some crates to speak to the crowd.

"My fellow citizens! It is of everybody's knowledge that Camelot has never been the same after then disappearance of king Arthur, and I fear that it will never be, that is, if we don't do something about it"

Some on the crowd pointed out that when Arthur was still around, things were also bad, he being an almost authoritarian king.

"Yes, the last king had his flaws and weak moments, but still he pushed this lands forward, and kept the evil at bay with his power and the power of the Knights of the Round Table"

Another of the four elders spoke now.

"Hear us, my friends. We speak the truth, and the truth is that the former royal wizard has dethroned the king and usurped the kingdom for herself"

The third elder spoke then.

"The knights are no longer loyal to the kingdom neither us citizens. We must take this matter on our own hands"

"That is what we will do. We will march to the gates and demand justice upon the sorcerer who stole the king's crown"

"None that allies to the witch will be spared, not even the fallen knights"

"Yes, my friends. We must storm the castle and take the control of our land, bringing down whoever opposes our cause!"

"Hey! There is a maid of the castle right there!".

Someone in the crowd spotted Alicia while she was already leaving the square. She stiffened a bit but soon she made a run for it because the crowd was coming after her. And to think that this happened right when she was at the library, of all places. She rushed through the streets holding the books she borrowed tight to her chest, careful not to drop them, with the angry crowd hot on her heels. She reached the main road to the castle with the jostle still after her, which left the wall guards at the castle pretty confused. Alicia started to shout to them to close the gate, but she was quite far and short breathing. She wasn't the most athletic maid in the household. Luckily, and by luck I mean the angry shouts of the crowd in the distance, one of the guards understood what Alicia meant and quickly jumped to action, giving the order to close the gate, though maybe he was too quick because the gatekeeper released the chains and the gate went down, barely letting Alicia entering the walls of the castle.

Just a few seconds and the crowd stopped at the gate, trying to force the strong bars and reaching their arms through the squares. Some of the wall guards took position, but none of them knew what was happening. The sentry reached a big horn, breathed in and sounded a loud and long noise, alerting everyone on the castle. After the warning signal, he gave two short breaths on the horn, giving a signal to retreat and hold a defensive position. The guards could not attack the town's population.

Not long after the warning, the knights came over to the gate. Upon seeing them, Alicia rushed to them and tried to tell what happened, but on her frenzy she just spilled a lot of words in fast pace, earning the confused faces of the knights. Lancelot stopped her mid sentence and told her to find Merlina. The royal wizard would know what to do with this huge amount of information. Alicia then rushed to the castle, not noticing the relieved expression on the black hedgehog's face.

And that's how the crowd formed and Alicia got to the wizard. Now that everything was explained, the next step to Merlina was figure out how this whole commotion was related to the strange feeling she was sensing. The wizard turned back and leaned on the parapet, watching the crowd with attention. All of sudden a huge bubble of dissatisfaction appeared and popped, not that she never heard some critics, but something was off. And the worst part was that they could not react, because this could aggravate even further the situation. The only solution was to understand the forces acting behind the curtains.

Merlina wasn't the only one concerned. Both the girls and the maid looked at the crowd shouting at the gate, becoming more furious with each minute that passed. Soon there would be no alternative besides using force to settle them down. Suddenly, a gentle and familiar breeze blew by, getting the attention of the raccoon and rabbit. They sensed something talking to them in the wind, like a very subtle fluted voice, and somehow they thought about getting the sword and the shield. The reason was unknown, but they just felt that they should get them. And that was what they did.

Without thinking too much the girls left the balcony in a hurry, leaving Merlina and Alicia confused. They dashed through the hallways and entered the great room, crossing it and reaching the smaller room where Merlina left the weapons. They came over the wooden table where the weapons were laying and got them. Now, what should they do?

"So you have any ideas, Cream?"

"Well, not really. We can't just go there and fight the citizens"

"Not that those things would be useful anyways. You saw how cheap they are"

"Yes, but still…"

"You feel that you must do something, right?"

The voice of Merlina startled them. The wizard returned to the library, guessing that the girls would retrieve the peculiar weapons. The reason for it was as clear as the one for the angry crowd outside. And yet, she also could sense that this cheap shield and dull sword had something important. Important and powerful. If she learned something from her previous mistakes it was that one cannot change the flow of nature. Sooner or later this mystery would be revealed. The problem was with the other mystery, a threat yet to be uncovered and already knocking on their door.

"My young girls, I know the urge to do something and the feeling of having a duty to fulfill. Therefore, go and do what you feel you must do. Maybe you two ended here for a reason after all"

Nodding and with determination on their eyes, Cream and Marine left the small room and the wizard's library and rushed through the hallways, still without a clue of how to proceed next, but they were confident and were going to do whatever was on their reach to help the knights and the town's people.

They quickly got to the courtyard and crossed it in a light jog, catching up with the guards at the gate. They asked where the sacred knights were, but none of the guards gave them much attention, telling them to get somewhere safe. One of the guards though recognized them from walking around with Lancelot, and pointed the direction the knights went. Thanking him, they followed the lead, running along the wall until they found a gate with the size of a small door. It was unlocked so they entered and followed through a small tunnel that went down the large walls of the castle. As they went deeper, they found themselves in a huge net of underground passages, not only leading back to the castle but going towards the town too. And they were pretty much lost.

"Where to now?"

""Umm, eeny meeny miny moe?"

They decided to go down a tunner more to the right. The path was normal for a while but it transformed into an steep descent, leading them further underground, which proved to be a daring decision since the few daylight that came through some venting breaches on the ceiling was gone and the ambient got illuminated with a cold blue emanating from torches on the walls. The blocks on the floor and lower parts of the walls were humid and had some moss growing. At the end of the descent they found an crossed intersection leading to three ways: straightforward, right or left.

"Cream… maybe we should go back? You know… to a place less creepy than this, hehe…"

"I think I agree… with you… wait"

The big ears of Cream provided her a keen audition, and since there was an almost absolute silence where they were, she heard a low sound echoing through one of the narrow hallways, the one to the left. She felt the familiar sensation again, that one when that strange breeze blowed by. She could even feel the light wind of her nose, even though the air here was heavy and stagnated. She followed down the left tunnel with Marine right after her, holding the shield tightly. As they walked through the tunnel, another familiar sensation came in, but a unwelcome one. Once again the time seemed to stop it's flow and their minds were drifting away, but then the sword and the shield started to emanate a faint golden light, contrasting with the darkened walls and floor. It was like something tainted, rather stained them, and whatever it was, it was responsible for messing with their heads. Cream, once again with her thoughts clear, noticed that the sound was a little bit louder, yet still unhearable to Marine.

"I hear something coming from here"

"I don't hear nothing. What is it?"

"I don't know. It is a low gurgle, like something boiling"

As they approached the end of the tunnel, the few light that the torches provided seemed to die out. At the end of the tunnel, a small round room appeared, connecting the path they were with some more, but the thing that stood up was a huge puddle of a dark purple thick liquid similar to oil. Some big bubbles came from it often and it had portions of it spilled around, forming some kind of tendrils that crawled on the walls and ceiling, getting between the blocks. Whatever it was, it definitely the source of the eerie feelings they felt at the Shrouded Forest.

"What… is that thing?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't looks like anything I would expect to find in an underground tunnel"

"Do you think this is…?"

They shuddered at the possibility of them finding the place where the city channels the sewage. But then something happened. Marine slipped and let the shield fall on the ground near the puddle, and it recoiled slightly, as if getting away from it. They looked at it and the next thing they thought was that maybe this puddle wasn't just a puddle, but something alive, an strange animal of some sort. Marine reached for her shield and the dark mass turned back to its previous form, and then she saw it form tiny tendrils that wiggled and tried to reach her. She quickly avoided it and jumped back to where Cream was.

"Okay, this is definitely a bad thing!"

Cream held an curious and thoughtful look on her face as she stared at the boiling mass, and then she pointed the sword towards it, making the thing retreat again. In a daring move she swung her sword down at the puddle, and the reaction was pretty creepy.

The moment the edge of the blade made contact, the dark mass emitted a loud and high pitched scream and dozens of tendrils sprouted from the main body, thrashing around furiously. The blade of the sword had a faint golden glow that intensified the more it teared through the screeching blob.

Cream had to make an effort to keep holding her sword as the loud screech felt like thousands of forks scratching on a blackboard, while Marine tried to damp the sound covering her ears. After a few more seconds of agony the dark purple mass stopped thrashing its tendrils and screeching and liquified, evaporating in an purple steam right after. While they processed what just happened, Marine noticed something.

" Hey look Cream, the sword is getting black!"

"Black? What are you…~gasp~"

The blade was becoming darker and darker, from the tip and coming to the handle. The stain was crawling along the sword and Cream was about to remove it with her hand, but stopped right before wiping it with her glove. Something told her this was a bad idea. But still, it was an unnerving situation and she was thinking about what to do. Once again that eerie breeze blew and she heard something. Almost by instinct she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, focusing on the blade. Suddenly her mind became calm and her thoughts cleared, and the sword emitted the golden glow again, this time much brighter. She just waved the sword gently, slashing the air, and the black stain evaporated in the air, just like the puddle did. Not only that, the stains on the ground and walls shrunk and vanished into the same purple steam. Marine had awe and confusion all over her face.

"Wow… how did you do that?"

"I don't know. I just… did"

They didn't have much time to discuss because they heard the sound of voices and approaching steps. They got into a fight stance and faced the direction the sound came from. The source of the noise revealed to be none other than the knights, who got surprised to find the young girls here.

"How? What are you two doing in here?"

"We came after you guys and a guard told us the direction, but we kind of ended here by luck"

"Sir Lancelot, we found something strange here"

"What would that be, Cream?"

"I am not sure, but I have a feeling that this is responsible for the troubles at the castle's gate"

"I have a 'feeling'? Very promising"

"Leave them be, Lamorak. Please tell us what you saw girls"

"It was a dark purple puddle that was kind of spreading all over the place, and it tried to catch me when I got near it"

"Not only that, when we came to here we felt the same strange feeling of the Shrouded Forest"

"And where is this suspicious form?"

"Well, Sir Gawain, I think I got rid of it?"

"Oh, I see, another miracle missed. This is just too convenient"

"Now, listen here you fancy green dust-"

"Not now Marine, hehe… It is true, the thing and the stains vanished into a purple steam. It even stained my sword but somehow all of it vanished"

"And exactly how did you-"

Lamorak was cut mid sentence by a low sound of something banging came from the floors above, most specifically, from the gates of the castle.

"This cannot be a good signal"

"I feel the same, Gawain. I suggest the explanation can wait until we solve the crisis above"

The knights agreed with Galahad and soon they were moving through the tunnels at fast pace with Cream and Marine following them. Even though the network was pretty much a multiple levels maze, they kept going like it was a only way route, showing that this was a very known territory. In no time they reached the surface, passing through a small wooden door in a narrow alley, pretty hidden so those who didn't knew about it would never guess. Exiting the alley, the were on the edge of the town, from where they could see the gate of the castle and the angry crowd still shouting and banging at it. What was more surprising, they were actually managing to damage the iron gates, slightly shaking it off it's place. The guards inside could not believe in what they were seeing. At this rate, they would need to use force and maybe this could prove to not enough. From their position, the knights and the girls saw something that seemed pretty wrong with the population, despite the endless rage state, that is. The citizens looked taller, bulkier and with a light tone of purple on their skin.

"We must calm down the citizens. Let's go talk to them". Lancelot proposed and like that they got out of the alley and walked towards the angry crowd. The girls stood behind because for them, something bad was going to happen.

"Sir Lancelot, I don't think this is a good idea"

"Yes, something tells me that they ain't even capable of listening anyone"

"Don't worry, there is more that one way to control a crowd. We've got this". Galahad assured them with a gentle smile but the moment they came into view and Lancelot got their attention, the crowd stopped banging at the gates and rushed towards them, in a very unfriended way.

"Take over the knights!"

"Traitors!"

The sudden outburst even made the knights flinch a little and in no time they were almost surrounded by the furious citizens, all glaring daggers at them and with murderous looks. Without thinking too much, they advanced against the knights letting out loud cries almost as if possessed by something. The knights, skilled fighters as they were, took defensive positions and fended off their attackers, caring to use the dull edges of their swords and containing their strength. Unfortunately this proved to be pretty hard because the crowd of enraged people had a huge increase in strength and attacked viciously.

Watching the fight from afar, the girls were in doubt if they should or not join in, first because they didn't want to harm the citizens and second because at the end the hurt ones could be themselves. At that point both of them were pretty sure that that state was an effect of the dark purple thing from before. It was at that moment that Cream saw her sword letting out the faint golden glow again, and this clicked something into her mind. If she somehow managed to remove the dark stains back at the underground, maybe she could do the same with these people. With that in mind she stepped out of the alley and went towards the local of the fight, which startled Marine.

"Cream, where are you going?!"

"I think I can get rid of the stains on them, like I did back on the tunnels"

"It was totally on accident, Cream. How are you gonna do it again?"

"I'm not sure, but I have to try at least". The determined look on the rabbit's eyes convinced Marine, who then stepped out of the alley too.

"~sigh~ Alright, so I guess you could use some protection then". The raccoon gave her friend a warm and encouraging smile and then they rushed to the angry crowd attacking the knights.

They approached the crowd and Cream ran a finger along the blade of her sword, confirming that it was so dull that it didn't even cut through her glove. Closing her eyes and breathing in deeply, she tried to remember and recreate what she felt and did on the tunnels. Her heartbeat was steady and the more she focused, less noise she could hear from her surroundings. It seemed to work because the glow on the blade was slowing intensifying.

This caught not only Marine's attention, but some of the attacker, which made them direct their rage towards the girls. Letting out a bestial roar, they rushed after them and jumped to attack but were blocked by Marine, who lifted her shield, creating an faint golden barrier that surrounded Cream and herself. The possessed citizens lashed their all new purple claws at the shield to no avail, not even scratching it of phasing the force field.

Suddenly, the blade let out a bright light and Cream opened her eyes to see if she had done it right. Turns out she managed to do better than before. She could feel it from the sensation of power at her hand. She then looked at the people attacking them, once normal citizens now turned into mutated creatures possessed by some strange force, but that didn't stop her. She prepared to launch an attack, drawing the sword back.

"Marine, when I say, low the shield okay?"

"Got it"

Cream gave the signal and Marine lowered the shield, dissipating the force field. The moment it went down the mutated citizens jumped for an attack but were repealed in the air by a golden energy blade launched by Cream swinging it forward. The energy blade went through them but it didn't harm the citizens, only leaving a golden gash in their midsection that actually cut through the dark purple thing covering their bodies. They fell to the ground wiggling around but soon ceased and stood still, and a purple mist left them, leaving the citizens on their normal state, but unconscious.

"Cream… You… you made it!". Marine cheered and hugged her friend. Now they could help the knights and the town's people.

"Yes, let's hurry up and help the knights!"

"Right!"

They rushed over the knights at the center of the fight. Cream had to fly them to the central spot because there were just too much people surrounding the knights. Once they landed Marine raised up the force shield, separating most of the crowd from them. None of the knights understood at start what was happening or where the force field came from but then they noticed the girls there in the middle of the fight.

"What?! Cream, Marine, what are you two doing here?". Lancelot asked while he fended off a stained man.

"Sir Lancelot, we came to help. I've done it again. I can vanish the dark stains!"

"You came here to tell this story again?". Lamorak almost got hit because he turned around to say one of his bitter remarks.

"Not only that big beak, I'm keeping most of them at bay right now"

Only now they acknowledged that the force field containing the crowd came from Marine's shield. It was large enough just to surround them in a radius of about three meters.

"Then please show us how you do it, my little friend". Gawain sheathed his swords and jumped over one stained woman and held her on an arm lock from behind, having to use a lot of strength to keep her still while she trashed around.

Cream once again closed her eyes and focused on the feeling she felt before, breathing in deeply. This time it was even easier and faster to harness this mysterious power and the blade emitted the golden glow. Cream came over to the stained woman and just slashed her with the sword, startling everyone for a few seconds before bewilderment took over the features of the knights. Despite the huge golden gash apparently going from the right shoulder to the belly, the woman was unharmed and soon the dark stain transformed into the purple mist and she was back to normal, resting unconscious on the knight's arms.

"... How did you do it?"

"We don't know either Sir Lancelot. I just discovered it, actually"

"I believe these explanations can wait, seeing the problem at our hands, though the sword seems to have an effect over the citizens". Galahad said as he noticed the stained people inside the force field retreated and even the crowd outside stepped back.

Cream worked on her focus and kept the blade glowing, while the knights immobilized the stained men inside the shield so she could purge the stains from them. Once they were done, they gave Marine a signal and the lowered the shield, letting the crowd enter the fight again.

The girls didn't have the experience neither the team work of the sacred knights but in time they got into the flow and were fighting together pretty well. While most of the knights fended off the greater part of the crowd, Galahad stood along the girls, helping Marine to create some breaches were Cream could slash the citizens and purge the stains. Marine herself stood back to back with Cream, covering her friend's blind spot. Most of the people had gained an increase in strength and sharp claws to attack but they could not pierce Marine's shield. She also discovered that if she raised it at the right time, the impact would generate a shockwave, knocking back the attacker and stunning him briefly. This way, she stopped the stained citizens for a few seconds and Cream gave the golden slash, freeing them from the stains. Galahad engaged on the tougher ones near the girls, some bulky guys that had too much size advantage against the young ladies.

As for the other knights, their team work and precision was impeccable, covering each other's blind spots and striking the possessed crowd with the exact amount of strength to keep them back but not hurt them, using the dull side of their swords and sometimes their bare hands. Lancelot engaged a greater part of the crowd, using his acrobatic skills to lure them away from the girls and knock the down for a while. Gawain and Lamorak double teamed a smaller group of stained people but those guys were transformed into taller and bulkier versions than before. They were slow though, so Lamorak didn't have any trouble evading them, and the size didn't increase their strength much further, still being brought down by Gawain. This way the held most of the crowd while Cream made the stains vanish one at a time.

The more she focused, the easier it was to keep the golden glow of the sword, almost reaching a point where it was natural. As for Marine, she was getting more and more into the flow of the battle, her senses and reflexes sharper. The girls showed so much development into combat that Galahad got completely surprised, to the point where he considered leave them on their own and help the others. In fact, when he dealt with his last stained man, he turned around and saw the girls surrounded by about a dozen of them, but before he went to help them, they jumped into action.

It was like they were reading each other's minds. Two stained man dashed towards Cream who bent down a little, letting Marine roll over her back, raising the shield at the exact time to knock them back, all while Cream slashed a stained woman coming from her right. Eleven to go.

Another stained jumped high in the air and dived into them with his claws wide open, but was knocked back by a precise shield defense and before he could touch the ground Cream launched an flying golden slash, hitting him at the chest and purging the stain. Ten more to go.

Cream clashed her sword with a dangerous pair of long claws. The stained woman had some advantage because of her height but Marine evened the things by hitting her gut with the side of the shield, creating an opening for an upwards slash. A scream announced a double attack from two bulkier stained men with large hands. They raised their fists and when they brought the down Cream pulled Marine with one hand, giving her some momentum to increase the knockback of the shield. Once they were down on the ground, Cream made two quick attacks and their stains were gone. Nine stains left.

Marine made a step with the shield and Cream jumped up, hitting a stained men in the air and another one when she landed. Before she could be surrounded Marine jumped to her side and raised the force shield, blocking the way of the stained ones that jumped at them. Cream charged the sword a little and let out a flying blade, this time not even needing to warn her friend. The attack hit three stained man. Four stains remaining.

The girls made a run around a bigger guy and right before he attacked they jumped up on him, Marine hitting his guts and Cream landing on his face with both feet, while she made a quick slash on his left shoulder. She took some impulse and jumped up, turning back and diving with the sword on another stained man that Marine knocked down with a low sweep. Two more to go.

Another bulky guy came at their direction in a run but was blocked by Marine raising the force field, his own strength sending him down to the ground. As they dashed past him Cream made a quick move to purge the stain on him. They made a run to the last of the small group they were facing, this woman much more affected by the stains, with a small tail forming and sawtooth like fangs emerging from a mouth full of more pointy teeth. The stained woman leaned on all fours like a tiger, waving her tail in anticipation and when the girls got into her range she jumped at them with her claws straightforward. Cream slided beneath her and quickly got up while Marine jumped over the attacker, using all her strength to hit her head with the shield. The hit made the stained woman dizzy and Cream just finished with a slash on her back. This time though, the woman let out a loud howl, as if she was in great pain. This startled the girls since it didn't happen before. The stains were coming out in the form of mist from the cut, but she wasn't coming back to normal, at least not at the same speed the others did. This made the girls worry sick, mostly Cream, the one holding the monster slayer sword. Maybe she used too much strength or something. What if she injured the lady for real?

In the middle of the confusion, they didn't notice a single stained man, small and swift, approaching them with hostile intention. He jumped at them baring his mid forming fangs and let out a scream similar to a roar, surprising the girls. Galahad was too far to help them. Only now Lancelot noticed this fugitive from the group he was containing. But right before it could bite Cream, a flying piece of tile struck him away from they girls.

 **insert music Escalón - Bleach OST**

Right after, a figure landed near them, using a gray visor with a blue gem on the forehead, gray gauntlets with blue gems on them too, a gray coat like chestplate and wielding a rapier with a adorned guard. The stained man jumped up on the newcomer but was easily fended off with a swift single movement. The visor was lift up, revealing yet another familiar face, both for the knights and the girls. Amber eyes fitted the small figures in front of her as she absorbed everything that was happening around, since she just arrived and found this huge confusion. Concluding that the entire story could wait, she just turned to the nearest of her friends.

"Galahad! Course of action?"

"Protect the girls and contain the crowd, but don't use lethal force, Percival"

Nodding and lowering her visor, she took a defensive stance between that last stained man and the girls.

"Well then, if you are here then you must know something important about these cursed souls, I suppose"

Both Cream and Marine were in a kind of shock for seeing what they understood to be this universe's version of Blaze, but they shoved aside the desire to tackle the knight in a double death hug and focused on the matter at their hands. If they were going to keep jumping from a world to another then they would need to get used to it.

"I… I can get rid of the stains with this sword"

"And I can protect everyone with this shield"

"What are we waiting for then? Let us go, shall we?"

Engaging in battle if the stained man, Percival easily overpowered him and brought him down, making it pretty easy for Cream to purge the stains. Percival observed with curiosity as she saw how the young rabbit made the stains vanish.

After that the rest of the knights regrouped, giving Percival a quick idea of how things ended like this. Already having some experience with the effects of the dark stains, she was relieved that somehow they found a way to break the curse. The crowd of stained people surrounded them again, this time much more aggressive. The knights stood on defensive stances, depriving the girls from direct combat.

The crowd advanced all at once, letting out screams and roars, similar to wild beasts. The knights didn't let them pass through their line of defense, fending back the majority and letting a few get into the inner circle so Cream and Marine could take them and purge the stains. Whenever too many stained men got into the inner circle, Lancelot would fall back, teleporting and knocking them down. If a large group formed, Percival dispersed them using her royal flames. The tougher guys were taken down by Gawain, while the smaller and faster ones were stopped by Galahad and Lamorak.

In time, even Cream and Marine got into the synergy of the team, getting rid of the stains one after another and getting the unconscious citizens to a safer place. Now that they had Percival doing the crowd control, it got a lot easier to deal with the stained citizens, and within a couple of minutes more only a few people was still under the curse, those ones more mutated than the rest were. When Cream used the sword to cut out the stains, they showed same reaction from before, seeming to be in extreme pain while the purple mist vanished in the air, and right after that they fell unconscious. The crisis was over, but for how much longer?

 **Act 2 Checkpoint**

 **And there you go. There is really no need to read this part but I'd like to ask you dear readers about a particular topic: Original Characters. I just realized after wrapping up the chap that I naturaly created some, and looking back at the previous story, there were a few too. I guess my try was to give the story a smoother flow, but I don't know if everyone likes it. Also, another thing concerning it is the personalities of 'canon' characters, like the sacred knights and the girls. I hope I'm not getting too far away from what they shoud act like. So you tell me. Leave your opinions and suggestions if you feel like. It will help a lot. Once again, see you all later!(hopefully not much)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey... It's me again...**

 **It has been a very long time, but at last, the next chapter! Whew, what a relief. At some time I got completely stuck with the story. I barely could write three paragraphs straight and the things just weren't feeling right. But at this weekend I felt filled with determination and got the chap done. From now on I intend to focus more on the battles. Enought slow pace and investigation. Anyways, for the dear readers that still believe I can do something right, here's the next Chapter!**

 **Act 2 Checkpoint Start**

After the whole crisis at the castle gates was subdued, the great gate was opened again and the guards helped the people returning to their homes at the town, while they gathered medics all over to see if they were completely sane and healthy. Even the household of the castle received orders to treat any injuries the citizens could have suffered. But inside the walls of the castle, another problem was starting to form.

After the uprising was stopped Merlina was asked to meet the council in order to discuss both what just happened and the situation of the kingdom, concerning this menace that she foresaw. At the council meeting room were the councillors responsible for administrate the many areas of the kingdom: commerce, economies, legislation and so on. There were also some generals of the royal army and the minister of war.

Once Merlina entered the room, she felt all the eyes falling over her with not so friendly intentions. To be honest, she was used to it ever since the whole deal with king Arthur ended and she took in his duties, but today she was specially nervous because of the previous events. The tension at the room was clear and this could be a trigger to the effects of the stains. She walked by the room and took her seat at the head of the table, with the others doing the same. She made her best not to hear what these politicians were murmuring between themselves, she just wanted to get over it as soon as possible, so she just sitted silent while she waited for the knights to show at the meeting. Speaking of them, the group entered the room and took seats at the sides of Merlina. With that, the doors were closed and they began the discussions.

"Very well lady Merlina, I think I speak for everyone when I ask what was that ruckus at the gates about?". All the other councilors agreed nodding their heads. Merlina took a deep breath in anticipation for the upcoming argue and started.

"My estimated members of the council, I believe you all remember of the threat I foresaw sometime ago. As I said before the nature of it was unknown, just as it's origins. After a long research travel performed by Sir Percival and today's events, the former has been confirmed. What we witnessed is the strong influence of this hidden force, which caused the uprising of the citizens"

"Until now there was little to none proofs of said threat, and all of a sudden it makes its way to Camelot and strikes the town's people"

"Are you implying something, Councilor of Commerce?". Percival asked in a peaceful yet serious tone.

"What she means, I dare to say, is that it is too convenient"

This earned the looks from all the knights towards the councilor of lands. There was a brief moment of silence, knowing what he was implying.

"Yes, indeed this sequence of events was pretty unexpected. But the reason for that is that this force crawled under my vision, literally. It advanced underground much further than it did above it"

"So we have a breach in our defenses. How do you plan to fix the hole you made?". That was the statement of the war councilor.

"Excuse me, what-"

"It is your duty as the Royal Wizard to protect the kingdom and its people from any kind of threat magical in nature. You didn't exactly excel at it as I can see, just like your attempts to fulfill the place of ruler of this lands"

"She has been trying her best seeking for everyone's well care". Lancelot said, his voice a little bit higher.

"Lovable, but still not enough. I agree with the war councilor. Maybe if she just focused on her main task, things would not come to such a breakpoint"

"Well, then how about-"

"Thank you Lancelot, but that's enough. They do have a point. But I must say, if not me, then who should take the place left by the former king Arthur? He did not left childs,so the royal bloodline ended on him. How do you, the council, think the population would react?"

This silenced the members of the council for a while, which made the knights smile inwardly. Even before king Arthur got corrupted, these elders always managed to find and point out the smallest of the problems as if they were the end of the world. Everything could be used to create a scene, maybe to show that they were needed, in an attempt to keep their privileged positions. That said, these elders would not keep shut for much longer.

"Then what about the actual state of the kingdom. No matter how you look, things had been going downhill. It is just a matter of how fast we are going to sink"

"Wizard, you said that there was a force behind the events of this morning, but was it the only reason? It has come to my ears that you have a witness of the beginning of it all"

"Indeed, my lady. She is a maid of the castle and witnessed these events. She was the one that warned us about the uprising, minutes before they reached the gate"

"May we hear the complete story from her?"

Merlina motioned for the guard at the door and he opened it, calling for Alicia. Once she entered, she met with all the eyes focused on her, which made her nearly faint from nervousness. Walking with her head low, she stood aside Merlina. The wizard asked her to tell how things happened and so she did, after taking two or three long breathes. As Merlina expected, they would exploit every single detail to make their decisions prevail.

"As far as I can see, the population was affected by this said curse, but there was already a mood of dissatisfaction"

"Well, yes. My theory is that the Shadow Stains, as we decided to call it, feed on negative emotions and-"

"Very interesting Royal Wizard, but that bring us back to my point: you are not doing your job either fulfilling the duties of the ruler of the kingdom. We need a real royal image. The people demands it"

"The people are in DANGER". Lancelot got a bit exalted with what he was hearing. "She is doing her best to protect everyone in the kingdom seeking for the answers behind this mystery, and that alone is more than you all do, sitting on your frivolous meetings while the people suffers"

"Bend your tongue, knight. Do you think you are better than us? You may have served to the king, but you are not above the army. As a general, I must remind you, knight Lancelot, who do you must pay obedience"

"I listen to no man! The Sacred Knights serve to the kingdom and its people. This is who I am! This is our duty!"

"Blasphemy! No man should be above the laws established by us from the council. We represent the will of the people!"

Now Percival stood up too, with a calm yet serious face.

"Don't talk as if you heard what the people say. I have been traveling and then farther I went from this castle, more the people looked abandoned and forgotten"

Now the elders of the council also stood up with angry looks on their faces. The rest of the knights stood up besides Lancelot and Percival, while Alicia hid behind Merlina, who just kept on her place, her elbows leaning on the table and the fingers of her hands intertwined, the thumbs pinching the bridge of her nose. Her head was slightly down and her eyes were closed, as if she was meditating, even in the middle of that heated discussion.

"It is about time the Sacred Knights get put on their deserved places. You all cannot have that type of freedom"

"I dare you to try! Sir Gawain won't kneel before a lot of lapsed elders!"

"This only shows that your lack of restraint has turn you all into a bunch of rebels! Defending that false wizard is the maximum proof!"

"Why you old woman-"

"ENOUGH!"

The voice of Merlina echoed at the room like a thunder, surely a spell casted by her. Still with her eyes closed and having silenced everyone, she finally stood up, now facing both the council and the knights with the most serious of the looks. It could be another spell, but the simple fact of her glare hover by the crowd made them shudder. Taking a deep breath, she spoke again.

"This meeting went as well as I thought it would, but rest assured that it is not a doing of Shadow Stains. Now, I am well aware that I do not have the right to take the role king Arthur left, but there is no better option since I was the closest person to the king. It may rise suspicions, but until this crisis is over I'll let them slip from my mind, and so should you councilors. As for the lurking shadow crawling under our vision, we have found an effective way to fight back"

With that Merlina motioned for the guards at the doors to open them and let whoever was waiting out there enter. And then the girls entered the room, with nervous looks since they heard the heated 'discussions'. They walked all the way to Merlina's side, where they lined up with Alicia. Though they really wanted to manifest their disbelief in the change two young girls could do, the elders of the council kept silent and remained at psychological pressure, staring intensely at them.

"Members of the council, these two are the responsibles for the victory over the Shadow Stains this morning, Cream and Marine. They are foreigners, but promptly helped us at today's incident"

The girls made a small polite bow for the group of elders before them, but still they could feel the glares and suspicions all over them. This was probably another thing to get used to on their dimensional travels. Merlina motioned for them to speak and so they did, explaining everything that happened, from the moment they found the sword and the shield to the point where Cream discovered how to cast the power of the sword. Of course they omitted some details involving their home world, like the AP generator, the tPhone and how exactly they ended here. This question would be raised anyways but the more they could avoid it, the better.

The elders listened to everything with their typical sceptical faces, probably trying to hide any amusement behind the stern expressions. Despite that, after the facts that occured, they had no other choice but accept it.

"Well then, now that we have a way of fight back this threat, what is the course of action Wizard?" The elder lady asked with a slight tone of irony. It was very subtle, but it was there.

"This is the kind of situation where it is needed to cut out the root of the problem, and that is what we are going to do". Her face now had a confident smile, one that even managed to give those stubborn elders some hope. "This thing came all the way after us. Now, we are going to hunt it down to its origin"

The meeting ended and everyone got dismissed and left the room, the knights being the last ones. As they walked through the hallways back to the library where they met Merlina, Percival got to know the story of the girls better and found herself very impressed with how much they could do for such a young age. Marine then walked a little bit slower, falling behind the rest of the group. Cream and Percival also slowed down, until the three stopped in the middle of the hallway. The raccoon had her face looking at the red carpet for some reason, which made the lavender cat curious.

"Is something concerning you, Marine?"

Her arms tensed against her body and she held her breath a little, before letting it out slowly. Marine then looked up at Percival's eyes, her own eyes starting to get full of tears.

"It's just that... that I miss you so much…". The young raccoon then hugged the knight with all the force she had at the moment. Marine knew that this wasn't the Blaze she knew, but still the mere resemblance was enough to put her on that state. Now she understood how Cream felt when she saw Vanilla on the previous world. It was a confuse mix of joy and sadness because she could see, talk and hug her dear friend, and at the same time none of this was really possible.

Knowing their backstory, Percival quickly understood why the girl was at this state, so she did the best she could and embraced her in a warm and sincere hug.

"I know it won't be the same for you, but I really wish that I can make you feel a little bit better"

"It does. I am much better now, really". Marine said, holding her sobs and tears.

Cream also hugged the knight, feeling the same way Marine felt. Percival then got her into the hug, holding the two girls like they would vanish if she let go. For some reason she quickly felt attached to the girls and she was really happy that in another world out there a version of her got to know such wonderful friends.

After recovering from the touching moment, they quickly joined the group at the library to discuss how they would proceed with their plan. Now, according to the info Percival got while she was travelling, the extension of the area already affected by the Shadow Stains went to the borders of Camelot, but in fact there was a branch that crawled underground and made its way to the capital. The Stain that Cream vanished probably was just a tendril of the main branch, which meant two things: one, there were more of these things scattered around the castle and two, if they kept eradicating the Stains they would find the main branch and by that, its point of origin.

"That sums up the plan. As for the tasks, Lamorak and Galahad, your speed will allow you two to cover more ground. Your mission is to find the spots where the Shado Stains are accumulating"

"As you command, my lady"

"We will cover the ground with the wind on our feet"

"Gawain and Lancelot, your fame among the masses can work to keep them tranquilised, hopefully preventing the effects of the Stains. Maybe a session of duels could keep them entertained. While you are on it, try to detect any strange rumors among the crowds"

"Very well. Think you can keep up, Gawain?"

"You, my friend, will finally feel the bitter taste of defeat by the hand of Sir Gawain. Hahahah!"

"Percival, since you just arrived from your travel you can rest for some time, but after recovering your strength I want you to search in the underground network for any signs of the Stains"

"Yes my lady"

"If you find any Stain, report immediately and we shall send our young friends to vanish it"

"Understood miss Merlina"

"You can count with us!"

"Before we initiate anything, I would like to visit the place where you found these artifacts. Something tells me that there are some answer there"

With that they got dismissed, leaving the great round library while Merlina went to a small bedroom to get some well deserved rest. This plan would need her on her best state. As for the knights, they had some time before the begin of their missions so they went to the kitchen. They ended skipping lunch because of the meeting with the council.

After eating, chatting, taunt each others and fight a little, they moved back to the Armory, where they would gather whatever they would need in their tasks. The girls accompanied them all the way along and were having a great time. They discovered a side that none of the people in the kingdom knew, the friendship that they had. It went much further than just the Code of Chivalry that they sworn to follow. Each one of them trusted on their friends with all their hearts, and that included Cream and Marine now.

As they were heading for the Armory, Cream noticed the tapestry hanging on the walls of the hallway the were.

"Miss Percival, those on the walls are true stories?"

"Oh, yes. Good perception. This hallway in specific has many of ours adventures recorded in this beautiful form of art"

"This one tells about one of our first searches for the Holy Grail". Galahad pointed out to a tapestry that showed Percival, Galahad and another knight on what seemed to be a dense forest.

"Ah, this is one of my famous tales, when I defeated the green knight". Gawain pointed to another tapestry where he clashed swords with a knight in green armour.

"Do you have any tales, Sir Featherly Knight?"

"Why you little- ahem. In fact, THIS one tells about the time I crossed the Shrouded Forest carrying a rare medicine in only a half morning"

"Well, I guess that's something"

Lamorak really wanted to twist Marine's pigtails in a knot but he decided to take the disguised compliment, while he forced a small smile.

"And you mister Lancelot? What are you tales?"

" Ah, have not heard them before". Lancelot had a serious yet strange face, as if he was waiting for her to ask it.

"Please Lancelot, not the Crystal Cave again". Percival pinched the bridge of her nose but she also had a smile on her lips.

"But the Crystal Cave is a classic! It would be a shame to pry them from such an epic tale"

"Go ahead. Do fill us in for the umpteenth time about how Sir Lancelot became a legit dragon slayer"

"Gawain! Don't ruin the story!"

The girls laughed at the antics of the knight, so contrasting with his normally serious behaviour. It seemed that Lancelot cared a lot about his adventures, enough to have asked for a three carpet panel illustrating his battle with a great red dragon. Lancelot seemed to be a professional storyteller, emphasizing each word, and the others just rolled their eyes or looked at the ceiling while the mighty knight promoted himself.

He kept going on the story while they walked, getting to the the very minimal details, which was okay for the girls since it was the first time they heard it, but for the rest of the group it was kind of a mental challenge. Then, for a second, Cream's attention drifted away to the walls and she had to look again at what she found, breaking the narrative of the black hedgehog.

"Wait a minute. Is that… mister Sonic?"

All the knights stopped on their tracks when they heard that name, and they looked surprised at the rabbit while she faced a red tapestry with an image of a blue hedgehog with a gauntlet and holding a sword. Percival approached Cream and kneeled to look at her on eye level, putting her hands on the rabbit's shoulder.

"How do you know him, Cream? Depending of your answer, we might have a problem". She asked with the most concerned face, something Cream didn't understand. What was the big deal? Everyone knew Sonic. Then again, another dimension.

"He is my friend. At least, in my world I suppose"

"What is the problem". Marine, also confused, asked nonchalantly. Once again the knights got surprised. That meant that the two of them knew Sonic.

"No one was supposed to know about Sir Sonic. At least for a fact. Merlina cast a spell upon all the land to cover his passage by the kingdom. Besides us, every single person remembers him as an old tale". This got the girls kind of off guard.

"It could be your version of Sonic, Sir Lancelot"

"I, Sir Gawain, saw with my own eyes when Sir Sonic fell from the skies, coming out of a portal that Merlina conjured"

"Well Cream, looks like Sonic got there before us"

This brought something to their minds, something that right now seemed too important to be ignored.

"Girls, do you have any means of contacting him?"

"I suppose. The tPhone sometimes works and we get to talk with our friends back home. I don't know when will it connect us again…"

"Why the sudden question, Galahad?"

"If you manage somehow to contact him, please, we need him to return to Camelot"

"What? Why?"

"With Sir Sonic here, the commotion among the people would subdue. Maybe even between the council"

"I'm not following ya. What does Sonic has to do with anything here"

"Sir Sonic… is the legit king of Camelot"

Both Cream and Marine looked at Percival with their eyes as wide as they could be. Sonic was the king of an entire kingdom? That was quite the deal to not tell anyone about it. If it wasn't for the really serious look on the knight's faces, they would dare to ask if it was a joke of some sort.

"How mister Sonic became the legit king? He has no royal blood"

"By wielding the legendary sacred sword, he earned the right to rule the kingdom. But he preferred to return to his home world. We are glad that he freed this lands from the evil grasps of the Underworld, but I must agree with Galahad on his point"

"Maybe lady Merlina could bring him again, like she did last time"

"I am afraid that this won't be possible, Gawain. I asked before and she said that the nature of this spell does not allow to open another portal for a very long time"

"Are you sure about it, Percival?"

"She assured me that, unfortunately". If the girls knew Percival for a long time like the knights they would notice that she seemed a little bit sad about these news.

"Well, I guess that means we will not be able to go home either. At least by the easy way…"

"I believe that you two will succeed on your journey"

"Thanks Percival"

With that they kept walking towards the armory. The knights asked the girls about their world and about Sonic was. Well, the last part was mostly Percival asking. She walked close to the girls all the way to the armory. Reaching the large room, they retrieved whatever equipment they needed and dismissed themselves for their respective bedrooms for some rest before departing on their missions.

At the next day, pretty early in the morning, Galahad and Lamorak left the castle to scout the lands around it. Lancelot and Gawain were the next ones, ordering a group of messengers to spread the word about the event: a series of duels between two of the mightiest knights of the kingdom. They would perform while they travelled, searching for any signs of the Shadow Stains. Percival was still sleeping, making the best of her brief day off.

As for the girls, when they woke up Eliza greeted them and lead them, after a well served breakfast, to the round library where they met Merlina. The wizard let them in and dismissed the maid, then moving to the smaller room. She let out a yawn, a sign that she didn't get much sleep since last night. Once they were inside her research room, she turned to the girls.

"I hope you had a good sleep. We'll need you at your best shape for the next days"

"Surely, but I think you should do the same, miss Merlina"

"I guess you are right. But something took away my sleep last night, the nature of the weapons you carry. I simply cannot figure out how they posses these powers"

"Well, for me they just work and that is enough. I never liked that kind of complicated stuff"

"Indeed Marine, but if I understand the nature of these powers and the origins of the Stains, in the future I'll be able to prevent such things from happening again"

"Oh, now I got it"

"Do you have any idea of what are looking for?"

"I didn't have a single lead until you two came. As I said yesterday, I feel that there are some answers within the Shrouded Forest, and I want you two to come with me"

"Umm, I don't know if it is a good idea miss Merlina"

"Yeah, about that trip, we kind of prefer to avoid the Forest…"

"Don't worry about the mystical features of the Forest. I can cast a counterspell with the snap of my fingers"

This encouraged the girls and then they left the room to get ready. On the way back to the guest room they met with Eliza again, and another known face, Miles.

"Hello Cream, Hello Marine. It's good to see you are all fine"

"It's good to see you too Miles"

"Did you heard about the fight at the gates of the castle? We were right in the middle of it!"

"Fight? What fight?"

Before Marine could open her mouth again, Eliza looked at her with a warning glare and the raccoon stopped almost immediately.

"She is talking about the first of the duels between Sir Gawain and Sir Lancelot. It was a warm up"

"Oh, this I wanted to see. Good for you two. Well, I guess I am going back now. I just wanted to see if you two were okay. Of course you would be, being in the castle and all"

The fox waved a goodbye and turned around but he barely took ten steps, a known voice called him and he heard fast steps approaching. A shiver ran down his spine, knowing exactly who he would encounter once he turned around.

Alicia was dusting off the armours on the hallways when she looked to the side and saw not only her friend Eliza but her new friend Miles, and she just had to go and talk to him. There was a lot she wanted to say, mostly concerning the whole deal with the angry crowd chasing her yesterday. But, in what seemed a mind read, Eliza faked a cough, drawing the attention of her energetic friend.

"Ahem. Alicia, I believe you have a task to complete, right? How many hallways did you clean already?"

"Well, two… and a half?"

The look on the cat's eyes said enough. Alicia went back to her task, her ears dropped down and her head facing the carpet. Eliza had instructions from Merlina to keep the facts of yesterday hidden. Apparently after having the Stains purged, the citizens lost all memories of the events, including the discussions that started the uprising, and Merlina preferred to leave things like that. As Alicia left to do her chores, Marine and Cream went after her.

"Wait a minute miss, you are the maid that warned us about the crowd yesterday, right?"

"Oh, yes. It it a honor to talk to you, my young ladies"

"Don't mention it, sheila. Say, do you have to clean ALL of the hallways everyday?"

"Well, not everyday, but is a necessary task and we from the cleaning team pick a random name all the times to be fair. I just don't have much luck on these things…"

"I know how you feel…"

"But please tell me, what brings you here today. I see you met with Eliza"

"Well, we're actually going to a mission, miss… umm…"

"Alicia. Alicia Bokwoorm"

"Right, miss Alicia"

"Oh, that is so fantastic! Can you tell me about it? No no, let me guess, it is a secret mission and you had to swear silence! Oh, such a dramatic measure!"

"Wow, calm down girl, it is way more simple. We are going with Merlina to the Shrouded Forest investigate about the Stains and our weapons"

"The… Stains?"

"The Shadow Stains. That is how miss Merlina decided to call the dark purple thing that affected everyone yesterday"

"Oh, I see… and you said weapons. What are they for? Are they important?"

"You bet. Cream here purged all the Stains from the crowd with the sword, and I can create an invincible shield"

"Are you sure it is invincible?"

"As far as I can see, Cream"

"Hmmm… such weapons… and the Shrouded Forest… it remembers me of a nice story about-"

"Bokwoorm! I hope you have already cleaned this section if you have time to chat!"

"On my way, Chief Maid! Forgive me my ladies, duty unfortunately calls…"

As Alicia went back to her task, the girls returned to the guest room. They got the sword and the shield and two small backpacks, prepared by Eliza in advance.

"Do you think Alicia knows something about those things?"

"She indeed seemed to know something. Hmm… we can ask her later, Marine!"

"Sure. Then let's go. Merlina must be already waiting for us at the stable"

They moved to the stable, guided by a butler that was passing by one of the hallways. In there they found Merlina. She just finished putting the saddle on a dark brown, almost black furred horse. She ran her hand along the mane while she gave her a couple of carrots to eat. Noticing the girls behind her, she turned around with a gentle smile on her lips.

"Her name is Gardenia. She comes from the same lineage of horses that my old grandfather had and is with me since I was a kid"

"She is very beautiful miss Merlina"

"And very fast, I assure you. Yours are not far behind too". The wizard said as she pointed to a light brown horse, already saddled and eating some chunks of hay. This made Marine quite uneasy.

"Umm, are we really going to travel like this?"

"Surely. It is the fastest way to reach the Forest"

"Yeah, I guess so… but I don't know how to… drive a horse…?"

Merlina let out a soft laugh.

"There is no need to be nervous. He is very well trained. You will be running across the meadows before you notice"

"If you say so… have you ever ridden a horse before, Cream?"

"No, but I think it'll be fun!"

"Oh, here we go…"

With some help from Merlina, the girls mounted on the tall animal. Their things were tied to the sides of the saddle and the butler lead the horse to the gates by the leash. Once outside, Merlina waved the leash and Gardenia started to canter. Cream, who was on the lead, tried to copy her and the horse started to canter too. The sudden move startled Marine, who held around her friend's waist, slightly knocking them off balance.

"Sorry…"

"Don't worry, I'm still getting the hang of it"

They followed Merlina through the town, the sound of the hooves hitting the stone pavement echoing across the still empty streets since it was pretty early in the morning. Once they reached the last houses of the town, the stone road ended and they went gained on the same dirt path the girls once followed when they were searching for a power source. Merlina hit the sides of Gardenia with her heels and gave a light whip on the leash, going from a canter to a gallop.

"Come on girls, don't fall behind"

"Easy for her to say… we barely reach the sides of this horse!"

"Let's see if I got this right…"

Cream did her best to hit the sides of the horse, but maybe too gentle. She tried again a little bit harder and waved the leash, but the horse just kept at his steady pace. Marine was already getting tired of sitting on the saddle and hit the horse herself.

"Can you just move faster alread- whaa!"

The horse suddenly changed to gallop, almost making the girls fall back. Cream held on the horse's neck and Marine held on Cream. They passed by Merlina really fast and screaming, barely controlling their mount, which startled Merlina. She sped up and got side to side with them.

"Hold the leash back and he will slow down"

Cream did so and the horse slowed down back to a canter. Both girls let out a sigh of relief, which earned a light laugh from Merlina. Not only that, she could not contain herself while she watched the young girls bouncing up and down on the saddle with each step of the animal. This reminded of herself when she was still learning how to ride. In time they would get used to the sore feeling of the saddle.

With some practice, Cream learned how to guide the horse and Marine gained more balance, so now they were following Merlina at fast pace towards the Shrouded Forest. It only took about half an hour for them to get there, instead of the entire morning that the girls spent by foot. Once in front of the dirt path leading inside the Forest, Merlina stopped and so did the girls. The wizard put her hands together and whispered some strange words. After casting her spell, her hands glowed with a faint bluish color and she ran one of them over Gardenia's head. With the other hand extended to the girls, the faint glow flowed through the air, covering both the girls and their mount.

"There is no need to worry about the aura of the Forest now, even though… it seems much milder than I remember"

They entered the forest at a steady pace. Having experienced the influence of the place, Cream and Marine were pretty surprised with their surroundings. Everything was at the most complete normality. The forest surely was pretty, but not even close to the mesmerizing views they saw before. Not only that, they reached the point where the path ended much quicker. They hopped from their mounts and tied them to a trunk, grabbing the backpacks after.

Now Cream and Marine were on the lrad, doing their best to make something out of the blurry memories of the path they took through the trees and bushes. After some effort making their way, Marine recognized some stones on the ground and a little bit ahead they found the path full of fireflies that lead to the cave. Once they reached the clearing, Merlina looked from afar at the entrance to the cave and already felt some kind of energy flowing. Be it because of the situation they found their weapons or just for precaution, Cream reached the sword and so did Marine to the shield. Merlina then held her staff and headed towards the entrance with the girls at her side.

They descended the stone stairs and the further they went, more anxious the girls got, looking around and trying to sense any possible hidden danger.

At the base of the stairs, they entered the cave and Merlina looked in awe at it. She looked up at the crystals, sensing a lot of energy flowing from them. Not only that, the entire place was overloaded with positive magic, something unexpected since they were in the middle of the Shrouded Forest.

"This is incredible. Instead of the elusive aura natural of the Forest, this place is like a mana pool, spreading the he overflowing positive energy through its surroundings. This is why the aura of the Forest is so weaker now"

"Miss Merlina, when we found the weapons, there was a ghost here. Maybe it was some kind of guardian"

"Hardly. The Forest has its ways to keep a balance, but I never heard of an undead guardian. Those belong to the Underworld domain"

"So it should not be here? That's what you are saying?"

"Precisely, Marine. I wonder how it appeared here…"

Merlina moved to the stone table at the center of the cave and leaned her hands on it, closing her eyes. She casted another spell and after a few seconds a faint white light path formed, making its way to one of the walls of the cave and entering through a small crack. Another spell casted and Merlina made the crack open up to a hole they could pass by. It lead to a narrow tunnel that went down for a few meters. At the end of it was another tunnel, this one much bigger. As they landed inside it, Merlina casted a light from her staff and what they saw completely shocked them.

The walls of the tunnel were completely impregnated with Shadow Stains, to the point where some kind of vines formed, pulsing slowly as the Stains where pumped along it. Though pretty concerning, Merlina also noticed another detail. The part of the tunnel right under the cave had little to no vines on the walls and the Stains didn't completely cover them. In fact, she could see that they were slowly shrinking.

"Oh boy, this is going to take us forever to clean up!"

"So this is how the Shadow Stains reached the town without being noticed, right miss Merlina?"

"Indeed. It literally crawled underground, diminishing the effects on the land. But I think there is already a solution"

"What is it?"

"Look closer at the section right under the cave. The Stains are much weaker there. I think that the mana pool is washing the Stains away just like it did to the natural effects of the Forest"

"But can we make more of this magic fountains?"

"I am afraid that not. These are natural nodes that concentrate natural energy and converts it in a magical energy flow. The Forest is trying to reach balance again so in time the flow will clean the tunnel, but it may be too late for us"

"Do you think it has any connection to the sword being able of purge the Stains? I do feel different when I use its power"

"Maybe the intense exposition to the aura rich in magic imbued it with the same energy, making it capable of purge the Stains. That is my guess"

"Shouldn't Cream purge the Stains that are stronger?"

"It would be too much effort with little results. We don't know the extent of this tunnel, neither if are others. The priority right now is cleaning the most critical areas, near the population"

That said, they crawled out of the tunnel and got back to the cave. Merlina kept looking around for some time, searching for any hints of the missing parts of this puzzle. She didn't knew where the Stains came from exactly, only that they came from out of the kingdom. They were weak against the energy flow on that cave, which could explain the cleansing power of the sword, but not the auto repair property. Plus, the aura in the cave was different from the aura of the Shrouded Forest, and she was pretty sure it wasn't here before. The more she discovered, more questions came up.

After some time they got out of the cave and made their way back to the horses. Merlina now knew a possible source to the powers of the weapons and how did the Shadow Stains reached so far in the kingdom. She made some progress, but it wasn't enough to say she had a way to fight back this mysterious plague. It was around noon when they came out of the Forest. Once they left the shadows of the trees, the bluish glow appeared again and washed off them. On the way back to Camelot, Cream practiced more with her mount, now easily controlling it at fast pace. Even Marine got the hang of how to keep steady and at some point they changed places and Marine tried to guide the horse. Seeing the way the girls were at ease made Merlina feel a little bit less concerned about this entire situation. Deep inside she was sure that the girls had a reason to be here.

They arrived at the castle by lunch time. Crossing the gates of the castle they found the lavender knight training with a tree trunk. The girls went to her side while Merlina lead Gardenia back to the stable. Percival heard the sound of hooves so she turned around and a smile formed on her lips when she saw the girls coming to her side.

"Impressive. It took you two this little time to learn how to ride a horse"

"Hello miss Percival! Isn't it great?"

"Yeah, we totally got this, though this saddle could be softer"

"You will get used to it after some time, but I agree with you. So tell me, how was your trip with Merlina? Did you find anything?"

"Yes, but miss Merlina can explain it better than us"

"She will probably call everyone for a meeting after collecting her thoughts. Well, I bet you are hungry. Since I have been training for some time, what do you think of eating together?"

"Yay!"

"Ripper!"

"Oh, right. Marine, let's wait after lunch time!"

"Oh, I got it. Shall we call Eliza too?"

"Wait, girls, why wait after lunch, and who is Eliza?"

"She is a friend of us and we have a secret, so you can't tell anyone"

"Okay… you have my word"

And so they waited for everyone at the castle to eat, royalty, members of the guard and household. After, the girls lead Percival to the maid's kitchen where they used the small door at the corner that lead to the royal kitchen. In their way they encountered Eliza, who almost panicked when she saw Percival, one of the Sacred Knights, and thought that she had been discovered. After calming down, they went to the pantry's door and Eliza used her password. The door opened and they met with the wide smile of Cathy, who had to hold a scream once she saw the lavender cat.

"Is she-"

"Yes"

"And she went to-"

"Yes, we all came to eat, if you don't mind"

"... Oh my, such a critical guest… hahah…"

"Please don't be nervous. The girls brought me here"

This made Cathy be mora at ease, but still she felt pretty motivated to cook her best recipes. The ones that didn't took much long, that is. Soon Cathy made their meals and everyone took a bite. Percival's ears perked up once she tasted her food. It was different from everything that she had ever eaten before. She ate her food with gusto, complimenting Cathy for her talent and skills at the kitchen, which made the panda a little shy.

They chatted some time before leaving the kitchen. Cathy had to clean everything before the chief cook and the team arrived at the afternoon. Carefully leaving the door on the maid's kitchen, Eliza, Percival and the girls crossed the big room and walked through the hallways.

"So, say Cream, you and Marine are from Sir Sonic's home world, right?"

"Well, technically I'm from another dimension too. It just happens that I was with Cream when we got into world hopping"

"Oh, you mean that you know another version of Sir Sonic?"

"Not really, but there's another 'you' were I came from"

"Oh. This is… very awkward, in reality"

"Yeah, it was kind of shocking to see our alt versions"

"You two also have other personas?"

"Excuse me, but I am lost. What do you mean by 'other you'?"

"Oh, it goes like this miss Eliza. Out there exists a practically infinite number of worlds, some similar to this one and some completely different. Marine here comes from a world where miss Percival counterpart is a princess, for example"

This caught Percival completely off guard while Eliza struggled to understand the very concept of alternate worlds.

"Y-y-you said a princess?! Really?!"

"Yeah, but you never gave that much importance, though"

"How could I not, Marine?". Percival held Marine by the shoulders and slightly shook her back and forth. "I cannot even fathom what is to be part of a royal family"

"Sheesh, calm down girl. You totally got this. I mean, Blaze did. She's not only a princess, but also the protector of the kingdom. Actually, you two are pretty much alike"

While she let this sink a bit, Cream kept trying to explain the 'Many Worlds' Theory the best she could to Eliza. The maid cat kind of got the main idea but she just could not accept it completely. Sure, Merlina was a powerful wizard but even her had some limits, and she thought that many worlds that looked like this one, but slightly different, was pretty much off limits.

"Forgive my boldness, my lady, but that sounds like a child's story. Seriously, Alicia always had a book of fairy tales with these kind of things"

Cream expected this kind of comment. After thinking a little, she had an idea and held Eliza by the hand, leading her through the hallways. Percival and Marine looked curiously and followed them. Cream stopped sometimes at the hallways intersections but she remembered the way back to the hallway with the tapestries.

She stopped in front of the one with Sonic stamped and then she reached the tPhone, searching something on it. She swiped through some images while Eliza and Percival stared curiously at the mysterious device on the young girl's hands. She found the one she was searching and then turned to the maid, showing a photo of her and Sonic hugging and making peace signs. The high definition picture let the two medieval ladies baffled. Cream gave the tPhone to Eliza, who kept her eyes glued on the small screen.

"This one is a picture of me with mister Sonic back on my world, and here he is stamped on a tapestry. From what I heard from miss Percival, he has been on this world before"

"... I am speechless…"

"Well, keep it that way. Lady Merlina decided that the best to do was erase the memories of him from all the population, making them believe it was just an old fairy tale"

"Surely. So, the legend of the Knight of the Wind is true… Alicia would faint if she discovered that"

"This Alicia girl, she is part of the household, right?"

"Yes, my lady. Alicia got transferred to the cleaning team"

"And where she was before?"

"On the library team. It happened because she loves books too much for her own good, at least as a maid"

"Oh, I know. Alicia seemed to know something about the sword and the shield! What about we going talk to her now, Cream?"

"Good idea. Do you think you can take us to her, miss Eliza?"

"Umm, she must be in the middle of her chores right now, and if she stop to talk about these topics…"

"I beg you to make an exception on this case. Every information we can gather is valid"

Since Percival herself asked, there was no other way. Eliza let out a sigh, knowing that this would be a very long day with her friend. She looked at the hallways, trying to see if they were already clean, in order to find Alicia. Once she saw some dusted armours, she entered that hallway. Alicia probably was going to pass by this one, or at least she should do so.

As Eliza lead the way, on the back of the group, Percival kept talking with Cream about Sonic and her homeworld. But right now her tone of voice was much lower, as of she didn't want to be heard.

"So, back at your world Sir Sonic is a hero…"

"Yes, a world famous hero. Basically someone has heard or seen him in every corner of the planet"

"And he protects the whole world alone?"

"Oh, no. There is also mister Shadow, and Knuckles. Amy, Tails and even me help them sometimes"

"And what kind of dangers threats your world?"

"Well, most of the time it's doctor Eggman with some evil scheme"

"I don't get it. Shouldn't a doctor help the others to heal? Why would he cause trouble?"

"Hahahah, he is not that kind of doctor. Actually, one time Tails said something about his doctorate being questionable, but then they entered on nerd mode and I couldn't keep up"

"So, Sonic fights an evil doctor that can endanger the entire world. But couldn't he simply get rid this mad man?"

"Well, it is true that the doc is very stubborn, but mister Sonic would never hurt him like that. I believe that sometime he will get tired of losing"

"Sonic beats him all the times?"

"Yes. Almost on a daily basis. Every time the doctor comes up with another crazy robot or plan to make his Eggman Land"

"So he is also a dictator?! I would definitely put an end to his evil actions"

"This is just how nice Sonic is. He tries to forgive even his enemies"

This made Percival remember of the first time they met. On that time they were enemies, with her having orders from the King to stop him at every cost. And still, after winning the battle, he came to her aid when she almost fell on a lava pit. He didn't know her and didn't have a single reason to do it, but he still risked his life to help her. Anyone with some common sense would think twice before doing it, after all, she could just attack him again once she got safe, but that showed Percival that this blue hedgehog wasn't anyone.

Her mind wandered from those memories to when she met with the other knights. While they thought only about obeying the King's orders, Sonic stood up to what he believed, truly following the code of Chivalry. He, an foreigner who just initiated on the ways of a knight, made them remember of a simple yet important principle of the knights: helping those who were in need, protect the kingdom and its people.

At the very end of the hopes, standing against a much greater force, he didn't retreat. She and the other knights knew as they watched that Sonic could not match the powers that Merlina had after casting her spell, but he still kept trying, never giving up. This lead him to archive a whole new power level, which allowed him to fight against Merlina and save this land and the wizard herself.

All those traits, his somehow naive benevolence, his true and sincere heart, his brave and unbreakable spirit, made Percival admire and respect Sonic like she did to no other people, even to the King. Well, he WAS a king, technically. But deep inside Percival knew that it was more complex and strong than respect and admiration, what she felt towards the blue hedgehog.

"...Percival? Earth to miss Percival. Do you hear me?"

Percival got startled as she was thrown away from her thoughts as Cream called her name. She shook her head slightly and turned to her young friend who had the most curious expression plastered on her face.

"Is everything alright? You zoned out to a really far place…"

"Oh, it's fine. I just lost myself into some thoughts, don't worry. So, say Cream, is sir Sonic… popular in your world?"

"That is an understatement. The "Official Sonic Fan Club" is one of, if not the biggest one on the world"

"A… fan club?"

"It's like, ummm, a legion of followers"

"Oh, an entire legion? I am… amazed. Bug, does he has, you know, more personal relations?"

"Not really. It is pretty hard to keep up with Sonic. But that doesn't stops Amy, thought"

"Amy? Who is Amy?"

"Amy is one of my best friends, and she is just head over heels for Sonic. He would deny it until the world ends, but they make such a cute couple!"

While Cream let out a light laugh remembering all the times Amy tried to marry slash date Sonic, mostly by the use of force, Percival had a blank expression and her face seemed to pale a bit, in a state of shock. She recovered from it when Eliza called Alicia and the dog maid came running all the hallway to meet her friend.

"Eliza, what brings you here today? Oh wait, did the chief maid said something? Because I swear, that armour at the seventh hallway was completely loose from the stand and-"

"No, actually we came to ask you some questions,. After that you can tell me more about that 'loose armour'..."

Alicia scratched the back of her head with a shy smile, then she noticed the others accompanying her friend. She waved for the girls and quickly bowed when she saw the Sacred Knight just standing there.

"If I'm not mistaken, you are the maid that encountered us on the day of the uprising at the gates of the castle. Alicia, that's it?"

"Yes, my lady, Alicia Bokwoorm. How can I be helpful?"

"There is no need to such formalities. As for the help, we heard from your friend that you are very fond to old tales and stories. Do you think you remember of something about the sword and shield that the girls here carry?"

"Oh, right. I really remembered of something when they mentioned it earlier, but I can't get all the details…"

"Anything could give us a lead or some clues about them. Care to share it with us?"

"~gasp~ Really?! Oh, I gladly will tell you all that I know!"

Eliza's ears dropped a little as she saw her energetic friend getting excited. "Well, here we go again…"

Alicia tried her best to contain her joy, but the smile on her face and the tone of her voice completely showed off how much she was enjoying it. She told the group about an old story, not very popular among the kids or adults, but that she, of course, found marvelous.

A long time ago, maybe three or four centuries, an wandering wizard found an strange source of power, completely unknown. It was pure and very powerful, so much that it changed everything around it. But in a try to harnesses its power, the wandering wizard broke some kind of balance, turning the pure source into an malicious thing. The source of malefic energy threatened the entire place it was and it would spread and consume all the lands. In order to prevent that catastrophe, an guardian of the forests used the last of the pure energy from the source to forge a sword and a shield, which could stop the evil force from spreading.

"There are much more details, but I can't remember now. I just read this book three or four times…"

The rest of the group deadpanned at the implicit affirmation that reading the same boom three times was still not enough for the maid.

"There is no problem. In fact, it give us at least a hint of how the weapons were made. Maybe there are some records or notes about it on the Wizard's Library. I suppose lady Merlina would like to talk to you"

"Oh my goodness, you really think so?"

"Pretty much. As I said before, any lead can give us an advantage against our problem"

"Miss Alicia, do you think you can find that book in the library?"

"Oh, I guess so, no, I know I can! But I cannot just enter there, heheh…"

"That can be arranged"

Alicia turned to Eliza with her eyes big as dishes and full of sparks.

"Really Eliza?"

"I will talk with the Chief Maid. It is an emergency, after all"

Alicia let out a squeal of joy, quickly covering her mouth after, but she still couldn't help but jump in place due to her happiness. She hugged her friend and bowed quickly to the knight before leaving to clean the rest of the hallways while Eliza talked with the Chief Maid. She better have all of her chores done by the time her boss heard about that daring idea.

After that Eliza dismissed herself and left, leaving the girls and Percival alone. The trio then moved to the Armory, lead by Percival. Merlina assigned her to search in the underground network but she couldn't keep still for long, even more now that she heard of a possible source of information. The lavender cat wanted to start already and make some progress on her task to gain as much advantage as she could, even though the girls insisted that she should take the entire day to rest.

Getting her armour and her Sacred Sword, she left the Armory and headed towards the underground tunnels initiating her search for any traces of Shadow Stains. cream and Marine headed to the Wizard's Library and there they stood with Merlina while she made some more tests and researches with the sword and the shield. A week or so went on that routine, with the wizard receiving messages from Galahad and Lamorak reporting whatever they found. At first look the lands seemed to be okay, but a closer inspection would reveal that some areas near the Shrouded Forest were starting to being affected by the Stains' influence. As for Gawain and Lancelot, their duels surely heightened the spirits of the people, the fights being quite the spectacle to watch. As for their reports, nothing seemed off, besides the normal agitation the lack of a legit king caused. Percival didn't find any traces of the Shadow Stains so far on the underground network, but there was still a lot of ground to cover.

At the end of this week, the knights returned to the castle, not finding anything much abnormal. This could be good or bad news, depending on the point of view. The Stains could have just reached the Castle by one way, or maybe they were even deeper on the underground so they kept hidden from them while they spread through the lands.

Such possibilities were in Merlina's mind and while she hoped for the best, she had to prepare for the latter. So, gathering all the knights and the girls back at the Wizard's Library, she was going to decide the next step on their quest. She didn't make much progress on her research with the sword and shield so she had high expectations with the possible clues that she was told about.

"Welcome back, Knights. From the reports given during the last week, I can guess the Stains didn't spread much further, even though it's advancement is clear. Right now I received the news from Eliza. Apparently, her friend found something at the library"

"My lady, do you think there will be any reliable information to be found? From what I heard, it all is revolving around old tales"

"I understand your point Galahad, but keep in mind that most of the tales have a real background that inspires them. Take for example our dear Knight of the Wind"

"I see… so, shall we go now?"

The group moved to the Royal Library, where they found Eliza standing by the door while she waited for them. She made a polite bow and greeted them, leading them inside afterwards. There they met with the librarian old lady, who then pointed out the section Alicia was. Apparently she spent the last day in an very old and dusted section that even she didn't remember clearly.

They headed through the tall shelves, getting deeper and deeper on the library. The more they walked, more dust appeared, and some really thick tomes started to appear here and there over some of the round desks used to reading. On one of the last shelves they noticed a tall pile of old books almost falling to the ground. Turning on the section they found the book lover maid, surrounded by what seemed to be a wall of old books, like she was a princess in a castle. She was really concentrated on whatever she was reading so she didn't even acknowledge the arrival of the group, causing her to nearly fall on the ground when Eliza called her name. Unfortunately, the poor structured wall of books didn't endured the sudden move and crumbled half over the maid dog, who now wanted to bury herself on the pile of books.

"Hello Eliza. Didn't see you coming…"

"I noticed. So, did you find anything?"

""Anything? Eliza, I found everything! So many books I didn't even knew about! I never got to this section while I was at-"

"Alicia, about the mysterious weapons…"

"Oh, right. Oh, my lady, knights, sorry for taking so long. I kind of got sidetracked…"

"There is no need to apologise, dear. So, what did you find about that old tale?"

Alicia got up and dug up some books on the pile and put them on the desk, opening them on some of the marked pages. She also pulled out a small note block where she registered any info she came across in other books.

"About this tale, it is very old and at first I found some diverging versions, but I managed to determine the closest to the original by the structure of the text. It is very unique and characteristic from the northern lands, somewhere near the outskirts of the Shrouded Forest, which kind of makes sense since there seems to be a connection. My guess is that it is part of a collection of tales written by an old author that-"

"Alicia, dear, could you be a little bit more direct to the point?". Merlina had to stop her before she entered on her mumbling mode, as Eliza warned her. The maid dog scratched the back of her head with a small nervous smile and then flipped through her notes until she found the reference she was looking for, then looking at the books.

"Here. The tale goes back to an almost ancient time, I guess three centuries or so…"

There is no registries of the origin of it, but by that time an mysterious source of magical energy was found. The nature of it was unknown and so were its properties. Apparently, it was capable of changing the environment around it in such a way that the very essence of the energy imbued materia and living beings around it. Since it was so powerful the expectation would be that soon the source would dry out, but most to the surprise of the observer, it only grew in size and flow.

"Speaking of which, do you know who wrote this?"

"Interesting question, Sir Galahad. I have indeed came across some notes of an old traveller, and using them as a comparison base, I managed to localize other books that may be of his authorship"

"So…"

"Yes, the observer was a real person. In fact, it made me ponder about other things like-"

"Alicia, focus". Eliza had to keep her friend on the main way, otherwise, judging by the enormous quantity of scattered books in this section, they would definitely not hear the end of her stories. Focusing back on the books, Alicia kept reading and explaining.

The observer, identified by Alicia as a nameless Wanderer, was some sort of wizard, but not like Merlina, who studied the old enchantments and followed the lessons of her grandfather. The Wanderer probably was someone with great magical potential, but little to no instruction, so whatever knowledge it had was obtained by try and error or synesthetic experiences, like it learned on its own. But there was a limit to how far one could go this way, and by the notes found in other books, that limit had been reached. This is where the source entered, allowing the Wanderer to tap into raw magical energy and increase its natural skills. Such enhancement gave it the tools to grow in experience and knowledge to the point it declared to freely bend the raw energy the source emanated.

"This seems to be an old sorcerer of some sort, but I haven't found a single line about this person on the Wizard's Library, which is far older than this acerve"

"I have a theory, my lady. I think that the Wanderer is prior or completely segregated from any order of mages that ever existed. On the notes I found there is little to no points in common regarding methods or rules that we find in the Wizard's Codex or any guild registries"

"So it was an outcast… kind of explains the lack of information, but still, such a powerful source should not pass unnoticed by the wizard orders"

"Well, I don't know about these orders, but someone did notice it…"

Back to the tale, at some point a being described as the embodiment of light appeared to the Wanderer. The being was concerned about the source and the Wandered, warning that it was toying with forces beyond its comprehension. Taking it as a dare, the Wanderer went further on exploring the limits of the source and itself, to the point where once again a barrier was encountered. As the time passed, said barrier proved to be really hard to transpose, and the lack of progress frustrated the Wanderer. In a reckless attempt to tap deeper into the power source, the Wanderer threw something out of its balance, making the spell it casted 'break' the source. But instead of stop flowing, it became a fountain of negative energy, completely opposite to the pure positive energy it was before.

Said negative energy dominated the Wanderer and corrupted what once was filled with pure energy. The result was an always spreading stain of dark negative energy that infected everything it touched, altering the environment and the living beings on it. Possessed by the same energy, the Wanderer got corrupted as well, going deeper into the shadows and increasing in power, until it started to melt and merge into the source. It's very ambition to achieve power and knowledge consumed its soul and fueled the source even further with some kind of desire to reach its forming tendrils to the borders of the world.

The tale also told that before the great fountain of dark energy expanded much further, the light being casted a powerful spell, summoning all the light around to purge the monstrous puddle of shadows. But even after erasing it, a lot of damage remained, as if everything it touched became impregnated with it's malefic influence. So in order to clean it out she casted another spell, solidificating the first sun rays of the dawn into a sword and the bright white shine of the full moon into a shield. With them, the impregnated locals and living beings were cleaned out.

"Wait a minute girl, how can we be fighting the Stains if some magic light dude got rid of it already?"

"I asked myself that question too, miss Marine. No matter how much I search I always find many interpretations and versions of this tale, some more alike and others quite divergent"

"This tale doesn't explain much further about the Shadow Stains and the weapons than we already know"

"I am afraid so, Sir Gawain. There are lots of blank spots and conflicts that I didn't resolved yet, but I am still trying"

"You still somehow discovered a estimated time when it could have happened and even found out that this 'Wanderer' was a real person. I must say I am impressed"

"Thank you lady Merlina. I intend to keep searching until I find the truth behind this tale. That is, if the Chief Maid allows me…"

There was a small laugh shared between them, except for Lancelot who had a thoughtful face, which got noticed by Cream.

"Mister Lancelot, is there a problem?"

"No at all. It is just something that got stuck on my mind. You said before that this tale came from the northern region of the Shrouded Forest. How did you concluded that?"

"Well, basically there are some patterns in writing that are likely to origin from that region. After some more research, I found out other sources that used this tale as an inspiration, all of them from the same locality. It was just a normal conclusion"

"Is this a big deal?"

"Maybe. It makes me think if SHE doesn't knows anything…"

"She?". The girls and the maids inquired the black hedgehog and since no one else did the same, it should be a common sense that they were unaware of.

"You think she has any knowledge about this situation?"

"To be honest, I doubt that she didn't take at least a protective measure, given the nature of this threat"

"Wait, wait. Who is she?"

"I didn't even think about asking her since she can be quite reserved. From what I remember, she is very likely to forget about the world outside"

"Miss Merlina, who is this person?"

"I know about that, but I am sure she will listen to me"

"Alright, not a single word before you answer me! Just who is this mysterious sheila?". Marine at first got answered with a massive 'Shhh', after all they were inside a library. After that Percival answered the agitated raccoon with her usual tranquility.

"She is the Lady of the Lake, and Lancelot's mother"

There was a minute of silence as the group of four absorbed the information. Marine and Cream were still quite confused about the relevance of Lancelot's mother in their problem, while the duo of maids had their eyes wide like saucers. Alicia, of course, was the first to speak.

"Oh my goodness, is it really true?! I can't believe it! Oh, sorry but do you think you can present me to her, as in, seeing her in person, or does she require a test of honor so only the pure of heart- mmffffmffm"

"Calm down Alicia. I am as shocked as you are but we have a mission to accomplish. I must convince the Chief Maid to allow your permanence here further so YOU can keep on the research"

"Mmmm… I know…"

"I thank you for all your effort, young miss. It gave us a precious lead to solve the problem at our hands, and I hope that you can help us furthermore in the near future"

"It is an honor my lady"

"Now, my dear knights, girls, I think we know our next step: we shall pay a visit to Misty Lake. Would you care to lead the way, Sir Lancelot?"

"Not in the slight, my lady. We shall depart tomorrow by dawn"

"Are we going to use horses again? The soreness just waved off…"

"I suggest that one of you stay here and the other can go along with lady Merlina and Lancelot. I could use Cream's help in the underground network while you go to Misty Lake"

"What do you think Cream?"

"Sounds like a plan"

"Then we are settled. Take the rest of the day to rest, my knights. We are taking another step to solve this problem"

With that they left the library, thanking the old lady for her patience. They spent the rest of the day resting as Merlina suggested. At least, in the terms of a knight since they used the free time to spare and train their swordsmanship. At the courtyard, Lancelot and Gawain spared with each other while Percival trained her aim and reflexes slicinc flying objects thrown at her. Lamorak just trained his stances and Galahad focused on his physical strength. The girls just watched their new friends, amazed with the tremendous skills they had. It was really hard to say who was better than who, even thought they were told Lancelot had the title of best knight. If there was a difference it was very, very minimal.

They got thrown out of their thoughts by a familiar ringing. Cream then reached for the tPhone, which she almost forgot she had with her. Looking at the screen, the call identifier showed no name, but she answered it hoping to hear a familiar voice.

"Hello?"

"-bzzzz- hear me -bzzz-"

"Oi, I think they are trying to communicate again, Cream!"

The knights heard the unknown noise and stopped their training to come closer and see what was that about. Cream and Marine looked at the device on the rabbit's hands with much expectation, also holding it as if their lives depended on it.

"The signal is cutting. Say that again, please"

"-bzzzzzzz- me? It's Tails. Do you hear me?"

Joy filled the young girls as they finally heard the voice of their friend with little static but at least without any cuts. The knights were surprised and wondering how did they manage to make that small box emit sounds like a voice. Maybe it was some kind of spell.

"You don't know how good is to hear your voice again, Tails"

"Again? But I just set up a comm link, rather improvised one. I barely left my lab on the last three months…"

"Three months?!"

"But Tails, we just reached a month or so away"

"Well, that was expected. The time can stretch and shrink while you travel. I should keep an eye on it…"

Tails started murmuring pretty technical something, along with lots of scientific and complicated words, which made the girls lose their focus. Just like that, Gawain snatched the phone from Cream's lap and held it with his fingertips in front of his face. He then proceeded to talk really loud.

"Greetings! Sir Gawain, mighty knight of the Round Table, asks the name of the voice from the magical box!". On the other end, Tails flinched at the sudden noise piercing his quite sensitive ears.

"Cream, who the heck is this guy?"

Cream got up and retrieved the phone from the confused echidna, switching to the speakers so everyone could hear.

"Well Tails, believe it or not, this is one of the Knights of the Round Table. Incredible, isn't it?"

"For real? Man, I totally owe Sonic an apology now…"

"Oh right, Sonic has been through here before"

"He said that one time he ended in the King Arthur's world, but I just said he had a really real dream. I mean, one night and he comes up with a story like that? I thought that… well, you get me Marine"

"Yeah, I get it. Hard to believe we are here either"

"Umm, excuse me. May I ask what exactly is your relation with Sir Sonic?"

"Well, you can say me and 'Sir' Sonic are best friends. Pretty much brothers, mysterious miss whom I never got the name"

"Oh, my name is Percival, and I am also a Sacred Knight"

Cream then proceeded to turn the phone to each of the knights, as if she was presenting them to Tails, even if the call didn't have a live video feed.

"Allow me. Tails, this is Sir Lancelot"

"Greetings"

"Sir Gawain, which you already heard of"

"Good day for you, little box"

"Sir Galahad"

"It's an honor to know one of the King's family"

"And Sir Lamorak"

"Hello, mister spell box"

"Wait, wait, did someone said king?"

"Oh yeah, would you look at it mate? Sonic's a king around here"

"Wow. That sure is big news. Anyways, I'm happy that you two are okay. Things around here have been less than pleasant, with you two gone missing and all… I… it's really good to hear your voices again"

"Same here, Tails, but we also have some problems to deal with here"

"Really? What kind of… -bzzzzz- hit! The signal is getting wea -bzzzz- rea! Marine! I'm gonna fix -bzzzz- get you back ho -bzzzz- promise! -bzzzzzzzzz.

The line went dead. The girls just stared at the device constantly emitting that white noise, remembering that they were pretty much alone. They had made new friends, sure, but their travel was still a lonely one, far away from home and from the ones they held dear. The silence fell in the down mood.

Then, Lamorak got down on one knee and looked at the small sad faces staring at the ground.

"Hey, look. You two are pretty annoying, and also very stubborn. But in a way, those are good points to have. Don't lose your hopes yet, there has to be a way to solve this thing okay?". And this, ladies and gentlemen, is Sir Lamorak trying to lift the mood up a bit.

The girls looked at the green hawk and both had a small but genuine smile forming on their faces.

"Now, that is more suitable for you two. Two boring and simple smiles plastered across your faces"

"Oh, shut up, you green duster". Marine and Cream let out light laughs, and even the green hawk let out a snicker escape his beak.

Now Percival approached, trying herself too to get the girls' spirits high.

"Oh, I have an idea. What do you two think about learning some of the ways of a knight?"

"~gasp~ Really miss Percival?"

"Surely"

"Indeed, it could bring a lot of benefits, making you two more capable of defending yourselves. Not that we intent to let you two fight actively". Lancelot said. The girls' eyes lit up with gleam hearing this.

"So it is settled then. I, Sir Percival, shall teach you two on the basics of what is to be a true knight"

"If you forgive me, why should you be the teacher instead of me?"

"Because". Percival turned to Lancelot with a somewhat daring look on her eyes. "You are the best knight of the realm, but not the best teacher. We all remember the last time you tried to 'give a lesson'". She said that part looking slightly to Galahad, who now was laughing nervously.

"Okay, then"

Percival also cut Gawain before he could even speak. It was simple: the echidna would either ramble nonstop about his great feats or keep the poor girls under a spartan training for no apparent reason.

And so, she proceeded to pick up a wooden stick, around the size of a short sword, and a wooden round shield, similar the magical shield. She handed the 'weapons' to her new pupils and took another stick for herself, longer than the other and slightly thinner. The girls looked at it with confused looks.

"Umm, shouldn't we start with the real ones already, Percival?"

"Only when one becomes a true knight, it shall be given the right to raise a sword"

"But miss Percival, we already fought and all and-"

"And by the time you did so, you were not knights. Now, let's see how do you move"

Percival readied herself in a defensive stance, holding the stick in front of her slightly inclined. Her face was peaceful and her body seemed pretty much relaxed, but seeing her like this kind of made the girls nervous, as if the knight emanated a menacing aura. Reading themselves too, the girls dashed towards the lavender cat, Cream taking the lead and Marine making a quick turn to flank Percival.

The plan was pretty simple: part ways and strike at the same time. If she blocked Cream, Marine could hit her on the sides. If she blocked Marine, she would be open and Cream could hit her. It was easy and simple to understand. In fact, a rather good plan, except for it was Percival they were attacking.

Cream held her stick above her head. Just as she expected, Percival was paying attention to Marine, so it would be easy to strike her, without much strength, that is. But in a single swift move, Percival defended her strike and evaded from Marine, making the rabbit and raccoon crash into each other.

"Lesson number one: don't rush at your enemy. You will only show him your intention"

The girls got up and went for another attack, this time running side by side. Another vertical strike from Cream while Marine aimed at the legs. Percival just took a step back, dodging easily, and lightly knocked on their heads.

"Lesson number two: always keep your guard up. Your moves are too wide and open"

Somewhat annoyed, the girls went for another attack, this time just trying hit Percival a single time at least. They were swinging wildly and throwing punches, which Percival evaded with ease almost no effort. Soon enough the girls began to feel tired, their breath short and heavy. They had to stop due to all the sudden exercise, holding on their knees and panting.

"Lesson number three: sometimes you don't even need to fight"

"It seems… we have a lot… to cover, right Percival?"

"This is much harder… than hitting… those transformed citizens"

"That is mostly expected. This is the difference between an opponent with raw force and another with proper training. You can overcome the enemy with skills, no matter how strong it is"

The girls stood in awe looking at the lavender cat. Percival seemed like an old wise master, and maybe, just maybe, they could be the chosen ones. It would be pretty cool, if it wasn't such a cliche. Anyways, Percival was pretty motivated to teach them and they were looking forward to it.

During the remain of the day they learned about the basics in a sword fight: attacking, defending, balance, footwork, and even some battle strategies. Due to the large amount of new info, along with a equally large training, at the end of the day Cream and Marine just fell on their beds at the guest dorm. If being a knight involved doing this every single day then the Sacred Knights seemed much cooler now. They wondered how did Percival managed to do it, then again, maybe she was at it since she was a kid, not to say that this was another world, one that probably wasn't so peaceful like back at home, ignoring the weekly threats of Eggman, but that didn't count that much, thought.

On the next day, pretty early in the morning, Eliza woke up the girls so they could get ready. Still sleepy, they changed into their normal clothes and went to the maid's kitchen, passing by the small door and meeting with Cathy, who cooked a double breakfast for them. After, they met with Lancelot, Percival and Merlina at the stables.

"We shall depart soon. I wish you luck in your search, Percival, Cream"

"Good luck with the Lady, miss Merlina"

"Well, what are you waiting? Get up in the horse"

"Do we really have to go by horse?". Marine winned, already feeling slightly sore. Lancelot just shrugged and put the raccoon on top of his horse, climbing up after.

"This is the fastest way. Besides, you should get used to it, as a knight in training"

"Wait till you guys discover what a car is…". Marine said while she waved Cream a goodbye.

The trio left the stables and as soon as they crossed the gates, they went at full speed, heading to the Misty Lake, much to Marine's dismay. As for Cream and Percival, they walked to the Armory and got their respective swords, then walked through some hallways until they reached a small door inside a tiny room. That door lead to a staircase, dark and apparently infinite, going deep into the roots of the castle. They descended calmly, Percival leading the way with a small flame she summoned on the tip of her sword, and Cream following right behind. Soon they reached the underground network of tunnels and the cat knight walked to the last section she investigated. She moved through the maze of narrow corridors as if it was a daily route, which Cream doubted was the case.

As they reached the last seen section, Percival and Cream started to look with more attention at the surroundings, trying to hear and sense anything that should not be there. Corridor after corridor they wandered through the shadowy maze, the only ones down there, or at least that was what they expected. The silence was broken when Percival decided to say something, rather ask something to the young rabbit following her.

"So, say Cream, that voice coming from the, what was the name...?"

"The tPhone? That was Tails"

"Yes, that's how you call it. Well, this boy is a close friend of Sir Sonic. Is there other ones… umm… close to him?"

"Well, I guess everyone is a close friend to mister Sonic. He is very friendly and nice"

"I am sure about it. Can you tell me more about your friends? how is your home world like?"

"Mmm, where to start...? Tails is like a brother to mister Sonic, they are best friends. Then there's mister Knuckles, who looks like Sir Gawain"

"Really? Like Gawain?"

"Yeah, he even has a similar personality, but he is even more a hot head"

"Someone worse than Gawain… incredible"

"He is really nice, though. Mister Knuckles don't show that a lot but he cares for everyone. Oh, there's mister Shadow too. He looks like Sir Lancelot!"

"Oh, and let me guess, he also has a 'small' problem containing his ego"

"Well, he does say things about being the Ultimate Lifeform, but that is more like a joke now… Oh, there is Amy too!"

"Amy? Who is Amy? Is she her a younger sister? Maybe a maid or something like that…?"

"What, oh no, she is my best friend"

"Oh… nice"

"And she is also mister Sonic's girlfriend"

Percival stopped on her track. And turned around slowly with a slightly anxious face, which Cream didn't notice due to the poor lightning around.

"A… girlfriend? Is it like… a fiancee…?

"Well, not that serious. At least not yet"

"I-I see…"

"I know I said girlfriend, but the truth is that this is more a one-sided statement. Amy really likes mister Sonic, but he doesn't want to date her"

"You mean… she is forcing him to-"

"Oh no, this was years ago. Amy is much more level headed now, most of the time… She never gave up on running after him, though"

"But if Sir… if Sonic doesn't want to engage in this type of relationship with this lady, doesn't that mean that he doesn't feel the same way?"

"One can say that at first sight, but I know that he likes Amy too. He just would not openly admit it. I think it is kinda cute"

"Sure… Sir Sonic has… a very pure soul"

"Yeah, he's really a nice guy. The best of them all!". Cream laughed lightly at the thought that she sounded like one of the thousands of girls from his fanclub. If she could see better in the dark, she would've noticed that Percival seemed a little down, like, demotivated or something. The search went on with little chats here and there.

 _ **Deer Woods - heading to Misty Lake**_

Meanwhile, with the other group was already crossing the Deer Woods and Marine was already sore from the hard saddle and the fast pace of the mounts. She really wished to be back at her home world, where to get anywhere you had to use a ship. Nothing about giant stubborn horses, hard saddles, and most importantly, no jumping up and down at each step. Just the gentle and salty breeze of the ocean and the slow back and forth of the waves hitting the hull. Man, she really missed her ship right now.

Speaking of right now, she was tempted to ask if they 'were there yet', but she found better not provoke Lancelot since he seemed pretty annoyed when she asked for the seventh time a little time ago. She could not help, she was bored to death, and becoming equally sore by the minute. Not only Marine woke up too early, even for Blaze's standards, the landscape around here, grasslands and some trees every ten meters; a beautiful view as the sun rose up in the horizon, but still quite boring.

She held herself as much as she could, but she was on the verge of succumbing to the urge of just sleep, so she decided to risk and ask the dreaded question. But before she could say it, Merlina cut her to it.

"Are we there yet, Lancelot?"

Lancelot didn't manage to hide perfectly that he was pretty tired of hearing that question, but it came from Merlina so…

"We will arrive soon, my lady"

Marine let out a relieved sigh after hearing this, as she kept her eyes on the horizon. Soon, the white fog that constantly surrounded the place came into view. Lancelot lead them without hesitation, even though they couldn't see much ahead of them, as if he had the whole place memorized. While following on a canter through the mist, the raccoon looked around, paying some attention to the old stone buildings and the apparently dead trees, completely lacking leaves and having the trunk and branches contorted in many ways. Even though the landscape could be considered somehow scary, she was really at ease.

A couple more minutes and they arrived at their destination, a great lake covered by a thin mist. The water had a very faint bluish glow and at the center of the lake was a small piece of land, with a round stone table in the middle and a dome over it. In the middle of the stone bridge that connected it and the margin of the lake stood a figure wearing a long dress with light and dark shades of blue. The pink haired lady also wore a pair of black and white arm warmers and a sky blue headband with golden circles at the ends. She waited at the bridge with her hands overlapping each other, resting in front of her, and a gentle smile crossing her face. They halted their mounts and then waked to meet the lady.

"Greetings, Royal Wizard, Lancelot, and a new friend, I suppose"

Marine wasn't sure at first, mostly because of the mist, but once she got near enough to see her, she instantly recognized the familiar face.

"Wow, that sheila looks exactly like Amy!"

"Marine, could you please have a little more decorum?". Lancelot said with a not so friendly tone in his voice. The lady laughed lightly as the raccoon scratched the back of her head in nervousness.

"Well, I surely would like to meet this mysterious lady one day, if possible. That said, if you made the same assumption HE did, my guess is that you have something related to Sir Sonic, am I correct?"

"Oh, you know Sonic too?"

"Yes. In fact, I helped him during his journey to become a true knight, and to fight with the old King Arthur". The lady didn't mention the last part of these events, but Merlina could not help but feel a little guilty deep inside because of all she had done before. Right now, the fact that Camelot didn't have a royal bloodline was because of her doings, so she was willing to do everything at her reach to protect the kingdom and its people.

"Judging by your looks, it isn't just a courtesy visit, right?". She said as she directed a gentle look to Lancelot, who flinched a little and directed his gaze to anywhere but her. "Don't feel guilty Lancelot, I know you have a duty to fulfill. Why don't we discuss your motivations with some tea?". The lady lead them to the table at the center of the lake, where a white porcelain teapot stood, along with four teacups. They sat around the table and the lady poured some tea to everyone. After sipping some of her tea, Merlina began to speak.

"Well, you are right. The situation at our hands hardly could be worse. Right now an unknown threat lurks beneath these lands and I think that the objective is to completely dominate the kingdom of Camelot"

"I see. Indeed, it isn't recent that I felt some foreign force trying to make its way into the Misty Lake"

"If you already saw it coming why not warn Merlina here sooner?"

"Marine, manners". Lancelot said, along with a glare and a pinch on her right ear.

"Ouch. I just made a question…"

"She does have a point. Even though I sensed its presence, there was little I could do since I cannot interfere directly"

"What do you mean my by that, miss, umm…"

"Nimue. Or, if you may stick to the formality, Lady of the Lake. Outside of the Misty Lake, my abilities are quite limited, so most of the time, I must elect a knight, someone willing to help and of a true heart, to go where I myself cannot reach. It has been this way for a long time, and it was what happened when your friend Sonic came to this world"

Marine was in a awe state after hearing that. It was really like those fairy tales she heard when she was a little kid. A wise and magic being that would call the righteous hero to complete a task that many would refuse to do in fear. The journey filled with obstacles, one after another and each time more challenging, until the hero had to face it's ultimate fate and confront the evil force that threatened the world. The chosen one was a light of hope for everyone around him or her. And Marine could actually relate to the present situation, not counting that 'chosen one' part, that it.

"Well, the Sacred Knights have a duty to protect the kingdom and its people, and that is what we intend to do. In order to do that, we came here to see if we can find a way to fight against that evil force". Lancelot then motioned to Marine, who then handed the shield to Nimue. The pink haired lady looked at it closely for some time and then put it on the table, closing her eyes and resting her hands over it. She calmly sipped some of her tea as a faint bluish aura, similar to the glow of the lake, emanated from her form.

"Ah, I see…" She said while the glow intensified a little. Another sip on her tea and she began to speak, eyes still closed and her features giving an absolute feeling of peace. "This brings back memories. Very old memories indeed"

"Have you already seen this shield, lady Nimue?"

"Not seen it, Merlina, but I have heard about it. A long, long time ago… I remember the stories my mother told me when I was just a child…"

A long time ago, before the birth of the Kingdom of Camelot, before the age of the kings and wars, at the Misty Lake resided an young lady, who had the duty to protect the balance of the lands and guard the Lake. She was a descendant of a lineage of fairies, so it was natural that she would inherit such a task.

At one time, the young guardian sensed a great shift in the flow of the magic, faraway from the gardens of the Misty Lake. She then parted on a travel to search for the source of this disturbance, something that no other guardian had done before. After some days she finally found the source of the disturbance, a single and massive wheel of raw magic, overflowing its energy all over the place and reaching far into the lands of what would be the kingdom of Camelot. Not only that, she also met an young and intriguing man, one that seemed to be learning how to harness the power of the fountain.

Wise, curious and bold, he didn't seem intimidated by the huge power in front of him, but quite the opposite, the presence of something that he could not understand completely compelled the man to keep his efforts in unfolding every mystery revolving that massive flux of magic.

At their first encounter, the man was clearly stunned by the almost ethereal figure that came to him, but as the time passed, he grew more and more fond to the young guardian, and so did her. The outcasted wizard was very intriguing and quite confusing most of the time, which made her wonder how much far he could go. She even helped him in some of his eccentric researches and experiences, which earned her a lot of respect and admiration from him.

Mutual respect and admiration grew into a partnership and a great friendship between the guardian and the outcast wizard, and from time to time she would leave the Misty Lake and travel to the deep forest where the source was, just to help out or make company to the man. And as he learned and improved his skills, she also learned more about it, adding a little to her own knowledge and skills. But the man was eager to find answers, and when he didn't found exactly what he expected, he would become very frustrated. Though she felt that this was a bit of an over action, she always supported him and comprehend his frustrations. But one day she noticed that this frustrations, along with a ever growing ambition, were starting to dig deep into the man. He would time and time test the limits of every aspect of the source, always risking something, even if at a low level.

This made the guardian be more wary about her friend, and that lead her to warn him about the dangers of dealing with a great unknown force. Unfortunately, this only fuelled his ambition, and he made a promise to completely control that unknown force, a promise made for him and for her too. This only made the guardian worry even more. Her friend would no longer spend some time with her, instead focusing all his time and energies tinkering with the source, refusing to eat and even sleep. He was slowly letting the research and his pride swallow him, which forced the guardian to take action.

She was decided to talk to him and convince him to stop, but when she found her friend, he was already conjuring a dangerous spell. He could not see it but she, having a fairy heritage, could almost see the fountain extending its branches around the wizard and engulfing his very essence. If he kept on this path, he would no longer exist, melting away into the source. She came to his aid and warned him about the time imminent danger, but that didn't caused the effect she expected.

To the outcast wizard, it sounded like another of the lectures the old wizards always gave on him. It felt like an insult to his skills, his work, his knowledge, and his very person. Caught up in his ambitions and pride, he kept tampering the source, each time going further, each time losing some part of his sanity, some part of himself. The guardian tried to force him out of there, but there was little she could do since he was directly attached to the source, thus becoming much more powerful. And then, a tragedy happened.

By means that no one could explain, the source came out of balance. The source of once pure energy now was emmanating an maleficent aura that contaminated everything it touched, including the man that studied it so hard. Lost in a swirl of reveries of greatness, swallowed by his own pride and betrayed by his uncontrollable ambition, the man succumbed to the flow of energy, forever vanishing from existence. The guardian didn't have time to mourn her loss. There was a really dangerous threat to these lands, and even to the world, and it was up to her to stop it. She retreated to the Misty Lake and searched in the ancient spell for something she could use, but nothing seemed to work. Then, as a last resort, and using what she learned from her gone friend, she decided to risk everything in a single new spell. It could do nothing. It could stop the evil source. It could be the end of her and of the world. She accepted the risk.

With a steeled resolve, she returned to the source, only to find that the once bright and livid forest that surrounded it was completely tainted in dark, malefic energy. This tore her heart into pieces, adding to her will in stopping it. And so she did her bet. Casting a powerful and completely new spell, she summoned all the magic she could and poured it at source as if it was the sunlight. It cut out the ever growing tendrils of the maleficent fountain and sealed it away, but a serious damage had already been done. Her friend was gone and the forest was completely marked, flooded in darkness. Using the very last of the spell she casted, a single shard of the sunlight that sealed the source away formed. Using it, she cleaned the forest from its stains, little by little. After that long task, her last action was to take the shard and make out of it two weapons: a shield, to protect from all evil force and every malignant intention that could be directed at it. And a sword, which would be used to clean every stain and purge the agents of the darkness.

These tools, she sealed into a cave, and crystallized as much energy as she could to keep any evil intent of reaching the place. In the future, whenever some new threat appeared over these lands, the sword and the shield would call a worthy and benevolent person to be the agent of light against the oncoming darkness. She wished to be sure that the darkness sealed would never return, but she witnessed its power, and knew that at some time they would return. This was her bet on the future generations. With that, at the end of her forces, she returned to the gardens of Misty Lake, where a new guardian waited to know her mentor.

"...wow…"

Merlina and Lancelot reflected upon what they heard, while Marine had gleam on her eyes.

"Nimue, that new guardian on the story, was that you?"

"No, my child. That was one of my ancestors. My mother told me this story when I was learning to be a guardian, her mother told her likewise, and so on. This is to remember us of the threats that lurk in the shadows"

"So the shield and sword were made to fight back the Stains… but still, we don't know why they got free again". Merlina tried to think of something. There was a missing piece in this puzzle, and it was crucial to understand that part in order to prevent another breakout. What if the seal was permanently broken?

"Did the Stains reach into here?". Merlina and Lancelot looked at the young raccoon as if trying to understand the reason for the question.

"The tendrils of the source didn't enter the gardens of Misty Lake, but they are growing around it like a vine crawling into a trunk"

"Really? I thought that the dead trees were because of the Stains"

"Here I can harness the power of the old spell once casted to seal the Stains. This way, spreading the effect across the gardens prevents it from crossing the limits"

"Hmmm… oh, I know. Merlina, what if we cast the spell back at the kingdom? This would buy us some time for sure!"

"It seems a good plan. Do you think you can teach me the spell, Nimue? Rather, can it be casted outside the gardens?"

"I must say it is quite complex and requires a lot of energy, but I am sure you can learn-"

"STAND DOWN!". Lancelot shouted as he pulled Merlina and Nimue under the table. Marine quickly reacted and did the same. Almost at the exact time a set of arrows crossed the air above their heads, some of them being stuck into the stone columns. Lancelot quickly got up, grabbed one of the arrows and got down again, avoiding another bunch of arrows. He inspected the arrow. It was completely black, about a meter long and it seemed to be covered into a thin layer of a dark viscous oil. He recognized this type of material, which faded into a dark mist after some time.

"Knights of the Underworld. How can they be here?"

 _ **Camelot Castle - underground tunnels**_

"Well, it seems we found it"

"I guess it's more like they found us, miss Percival…"

"One can perceive it this way too"

Some minutes ago and two levels above, Cream heard something echoing through a vent shaft and Percival decided to go further into the labyrinth, descending into the always dark narrow passages. Reaching the next floor, they went going into a straight line for some minutes before entering a larger room that connected multiple tunnels. The knight headed to a smaller entrance that lead to a spiral staircase going deep into the completely shadowed next floor.

Once on the next level, Cream tried to distinguish where the sound came from. It was similar to that time when she and Marine found the puddle of Shadow Stains, but at the same time it felt different. Until then she didn't felt the mysterious breeze so instead her focus was directed to her listening, and some kind of 'feeling', if she could guess.

It was hard not to get completely freaked out being into a place where the only light source was the light flame coming from Percival's sword and the only sounds were their breathing and footsteps. Sometimes, between a talk and another, the rabbit could even hear her heartbeat. But on the 'bright' side the lack of light made Cream stop leaning only on her eyes, making her others senses more keen. The air here was stagnant and humid, mostly because of the thin lines of water that ran through the ground and some cracks in the walls. More important, a very low sound came from the left tunnels connected to the room they were now. Approaching them, she could point out that it came from the one in the middle of the three tunnels. The shiver on her spine confirmed her suspicions that whatever was making that sound, it was at the end of that tunnel, or at least somewhere near it. The young rabbit could not decide if the feeling of something different was a good thing. They could not find another puddle, but what if it was something worse?

"Yep. That's pretty worse"

At the end of the long tunnel, a big round reservatory, with many tunnels coming from the walls and ceiling, letting drip small lines of water. But the least thing on the reservatory was water. Instead, a great pool of Shadow Stains bubbled and steamed, impregnating the place with it's malefic energy. Not only that, the surroundings of the pool were filled with what seemed to be very exotic armours, which Percival immediately recognised as Underworld's knights, but their armours were completely black, with some bright purple lines on the edges of the armour's parts.

"How can it be? The gates to the Underworld were sealed!"

"Underworld? What is this place?"

"A place full of energy and madness, the origin point of those corrupted knights"

"And I suppose they are the bad guys"

"Indeed, they just want to spread terror wherever they pass by, but they should not be here, and they look quite different"

"They shouldn't? Why so? And is different about them?"

Percival didn't have time to answer thought, because the knights seemed to acknowledge their presence and instantly went for an offensive. She had to duck a dark purple energy blade launched by a knight using a greatsword. A quick analysis of the place and she concluded that they were pretty much in disadvantage, even if the knights were big and kinda clumsy. The best option would be to go back the narrow tunnel and lock them down here somehow. After that they could get help and clean that infestation later.

"Quick Cream, run back through the tunnel. we will lock them down here and call the others"

"Alright!"

"Don't fear, they cannot pass through this narrow-"

Watch out!"

Cream pulled Percival to the wall, barely evading a slash from a long sword being held by a floating gauntlet. It had a dark purple mist trail that lead to the room they found, and at the end of the tunnel the knights were climbing up and turning into mist, and making their way to them.

"Umm, miss Percival, did they always do that…?"

"I have never seen it either…"

 **Insert Music "Shrouded Forest" - Sonic and the Black Knight**

Turning on their heels Percival ran out of the tunnel as fast as they could and went up the spiral staircase with a thick purple cloud after them. As they reached the floor above, the cloud made its way there too, dispersing around the room and then reforming into the Underworld knights, who blocked all the possible escape routes. Surrounded, Percival stood back to back with Cream, who was on a mix of fear and anxiety.

The words from the knight echoed into her head. she could have helped in the fight, but there was a clear difference between mindless monsters and skilled opponents, and she was currently facing the later. The grip on the handle of the magic sword was so strong she was sure her knuckles were getting white, and yet she could not stop her hands from trembling. No, her whole body was shaking in anticipation and fear. Her breath was short and her eyes didn't focused right, even though there was near to no light and she could only see the bright purple lines of the armours of the enemy. But on what seemed to be a mind reading, she felt Percival's warm hand rest over her shoulder.

"Fear not, for I am here by your side. The battle is already lost if you let yourself succumb to fear and doubt. I trust you can make it through"

Even with the poor light provided by the flame on the sacred sword, Cream could 'see' the smile on her friend's face. Right, Percival was her friend and she trusted her to fight by her side, so she would do her best to get them out of here. With renewed confidence and filled with determination, Cream took a stance as did Percival, who flared up the flame on her sword, providing more light on the room. From what she could count, there were at least thirty knights here, all of them basic frontline types. The room wasn't big enough to allow bigger knights, which was a good point. Pushing to the back of her mind the questions about how did the Underworld knights ended here, she readied herself, sensing the intention of her enemies.

"Here they come…"

In a second, all the knights dashed forward, letting out a sinister noise that seemed to be a metallic roar or something like that. It send a cold shiver down the rabbit's spine but she jumped into action anyways.

Percival casted a flame arc in front of her, temporarily blocking some of them, but she knew that down there in a closed room with limited air her powers could worsen the situation rather than help. She fended off two knights trying to flank her and engaged in fight with a third that made its way around the fire.

As for Cream, she tried to do her best in remembering the quick lessons Percival gave to her. Predict the enemy attacks to block or evade them, watch out with any possible ambushes and trying to find an opening for a decisive attack. But it was really hard to focus with so many enemies at once. She was starting to get nervous again, being overwhelmed by the pressure of a real fight, but then something clicked on the back of her head, as of a switch had been turned on. Suddenly all the nervousness vanished and felt more focused, her thoughts clear and her body steady.

A block in the left, another on the right. One step back and a block on her front, above her head. She slid the sword horizontally, knocking back the knight slightly, and with that opening she slashed the center of the enemy's armour. It wasn't very deep but it let a huge mark on it that emitted a purple glow. The glow then became white and much brighter, as the wounded knight let out what seemed to be a cry of pain. With that some cracks appeared in the rest of the armour, letting out the same glow, and the holes where should be it's eyes also shone with a bright white light. a second later the dark creature exploded into tiny bits of a purple crystal, that melted into Shadow Stains.

Both Cream and Percival were pretty surprised with the result. Apparently Cream only had to pierce their armours and the magic sword would do the rest. Quickly reacting to an attack from behind, Percival spun to avoid the enemy knight and slashed it on its back, creating a huge breach on the armour. She ignited her sword and pierced the knight through the breach and reaching the other side. The armour cracked and let out flames as the dark being burned from inside out. The armour dismantled on the ground completely void and no more black and purple, as a small puddle of Stains formed under it.

"It seems we can take them down. Let's go, Cream!"

"Right!"

 _ **Misty Lake - Nimue's Lake**_

Lancelot gritted his teeth in anger. The problems were coming one after another, first the Stains and now the Underworld forces. He even questioned himself if they weren't the responsibles for all this from the beginning, but he shrugged it off as right now there were more important matters he had to focus on, like protecting the ladies around him.

 **Insert Music "Throw It All Away" - Sonic Adventure 2**

"Stay back here, I'm going to take them down"

"I'm going with you-"

"No, you are not. Stay here and protect Merlina and Nimue"

"But-"

Shooting a glare at the raccoon, Lancelot silenced her and jumped over the small stone table, already drawing his sword. A quick jump and he evade another set of arrows pointed at him. The archers were shooting at anything that moved. Deciding to take them down first, Lancelot dashed through the first line of knights, leaping above them and landing a vertical slash on one of the archers. He looked closer at the enemies around him and noticed the differences between the Underworld knights he fought before. These ones had those black and purple armours and they let out a purple mist out of some parts of them. They also seemed more powerful, if he could even feel the difference. But that was just a quick glance.

Without wasting time he dashed to the next archer, easily dodging a point blank arrow and slashing the opponent in half with a single powerful attack. He jumped and made an aerial maneuver, spinning his sword vertically like a saw blade and cutting through two more archers. Three more to go. He teleported to the next one, slashing it on the back of the knees and beheading it in sequence. Another teleport and the next one was pierced right into the skull, followed by a strong twist of the blade, which would completely crush the neck bones of a normal person. The last one received an upward kick on the chin, sending him up just to be impaled by three energy bolts launched by Lancelot using his sword.

While he fought the enemy, Marine, Merlina and Nimue watched from the distance. The raccoon was impressed, to say the least.

"Wow, he really IS the best there is, right?"

"Lancelot surely lives up to his title"

"He had been so dedicated to the sword fights since he was just a kid…"

"Well, I can see it. He just wiped out the- wait, Lancelot, behind you!"

The black hedgehog turned around and found the once defeated archers back into fight, the damage on their armours regenerating. Even the one he just impaled was getting back up. Not only that, the frontline knights were circling him and closing up.

"Curses. They didn't have this kind of ability before". He said as he found himself surrounded.

"Wait up, I'm going-"

"Stay where you are! I am more than capable of handling this, so keep guarding them!"

Lancelot took a defensive stance with his Arondight and watched his opponents' moves. On the first flinch he teleported behind one of the frontline types and sliced him in a vertical upward attack. Then he made a run around them, jumping and slashing one knight after another while he avoided the arrows shot at him, but as he defeated them, the knights kept coming back. Their numbers were far superior, about fifty knights with greatswords, maces and shields, which only made things harder. Lancelot would not admit it, but they would end winning by tiring him out, as he kept fighting.

Another run and he just cutted the last knight, only to find that the rest of them were already fully restored and coming after him. He changed his strategy to disperse them and then take down one after another in a chain, but that also didn't help the problem with the regeneration. even when he used his energy bolts they would keep coming back up. He was starting to run out of ideas and stamina, since that was the seventh time he took down the entire group.

Unfortunately, the knights ended too separated from each other and a little too away from Lancelot, so some of them changed their focus to the trio at the center of the lake. Lancelot instantly noticed that and dashed after the stray knights but was stopped by an arrow that almost had hit him from behind. Those knights would not let him go unless he took care of them. He had to act quick here and reach the other ones.

As the dark knights crossed the stone bridge, Merlina casted a barrier spell to keep them safe, but they just ignored it, passing through the barrier like it wasn't even there.

"How?! It should keep the Underworld beings away!"

"This confirms my suspicions. They are not simply knight of the Underworld. They have some foreign force imbued in them"

"Do you think it is the Shadow Stains, Nimue?"

"Maybe. But how did they do it would be a mystery equally big to the trigger of the Shadow Stains itself"

 **Insert Music "Crystal Cave" - Sonic and the Black Knight**

They did not have anywhere to go and the dark knights just reached the small land in the middle of the lake. It seemed it was over for them, but Marine suddenly stood up and put herself between Merlina and Nimue, and knights. The wizard and the lake guardian could clearly see the young raccoon trembling, her knees shaking and her tail slightly fuzzled up, but still she stood tall over the stone table. Marine took a deep breath with her eyes closed.

" _Keep calm, remember what Percival said, keep focused and don't let fear take over you. Come on, Marine, you can do it"_. She steeled her resolve and held her shield on her right forearm, taking a defensive stance.

A faint glow appeared as she held the shield up, but unlike the other times it was more like an extension of the small round shield, instead of the complete force field, which only made the girl more nervous.

" _Ow, come on. Don't tell me this thing is low on the batteries!"_

The dark knights finally approached the stone table and raised their swords for an attack. Upon seeing the ridiculously large blades, Marine took a step back by instinct and suddenly the glow flicked, seeming to disappear. She almost panicked but when the knights attacked Marine somehow managed to get it back on and defend the blows, but she was knocked back and almost fell from the stone table.

The knights kept swinging their huge blades with hacksaw-like edges over and over, creating more pressure with each attack. Marine was barely standing up as the shield didn't seem to be absorbing all the impact as it usually did. Her hopes were getting pretty low, but she had to protect Merlina and Nimue. That was what Lancelot told her to do, and that was what she would do, no matter what, even though now she highly doubted she would succeed.

Another conjunct strike came down and this time she didn't manage to sustain the impact. She lost her balance and fell backwards, the shield fading away in the process. The knights towered over her, Merlina and Nimue, ready to give a single and fatal strike, but at the last second a bright light shone and the next moment they saw the three knights separated in two halves in the middle of the torso. Lancelot struck the three at the same time with an energized attack of his sword. Marine let out a relieved breath she didn't know she was holding, but it didn't last much because suddenly an dark arrow pierced Lancelot through his right elbow. They all became paralyzed for a moment before understanding what just happened.

 **Act 2 Checkpoint**

 **That will do for a cliffhanger, I guess. Well, the next one will start on the heat of the battle! Speaking of battles, whenever I am writing them, I put on some music that I think could fit well if it was a game or an animation scene of some sort, which is why I put the suggestions here and there. If it is too annoying I won't place them, it's just a personal thing anyways. You tell me, does it make any difference?**

 **Well, see you guys in the next chapter, that I cannot really promise will come soon... -_-**


	4. Chapter 4

**Yooo... it's been a really long time. Sorry for the lack of updates, I got near zero time back then and after that I kind of got caught up in a parallel project, but I'm still alive here. Anyways, here's next chapter.**

 **Act 2 Checkpoint Start**

 _ **Camelot Castle - underground tunnels**_

It seemed that the tide of the battle reversed completely. One after another, the Dark Knights fell, be it scattered in tiny bits of purple crystals or completely voided armours on the ground. Percival, though focused on the fight, could not let pass that Cream was more than handling the situation. The young rabbit was showing already the combat skills of an apprentice with some years of experience. Each attack dodged and each blow dealt to the enemy only increased the level of refinement and the strength of the offensive, as if she was being carried by some sort of spirit of battle. But there wasn't much time to pay attention as she also had her hands full.

A spin to the side and she reached the armour breach near the 'ribcage' of a Dark Knight, pushing her sword deep into the creature and releasing a great amount of flames inside it until it burned out completely, leaving behind a badly scorched armour. Percival had to be precise and keep her guard up all the time because, unlike the bearer of the magic sword, her execution method cost her precious seconds where she had to keep still, and this left her open for attacks from other Knights. Fortunately, her new partner not only could take down the enemies but also cover her while she finished her targets.

Cream was completely immersed into the fight. The dark room didn't seem so dark anymore, as she could 'see' the opponents around her. Not only that, whenever they killed one of those things it was quite the light show, mostly when she pierced their armours with her magic blade. Percival didn't have the same advantage so she tried to stay near her and watch her back, after all she wasn't a trained knight. The young girls could not tell what it was or how this was working, but she felt as if her body was on autopilot, reacting to each movement and action around her. Of course she was focused on what she was doing, but the fact that she was able to see oncoming attacks on such poor conditions and easily dodge them got even herself surprised. Cream knew she wasn't that good, but that thought suddenly gave place to another.

She ducked under an horizontal swing and slided under the legs of a Dark Knight, cutting the back of its knees and bringing it down. From this height she easily pierced the joint between the armour piece and the helmet, purging the darkness creature into a massive bright explosion, while almost at the same time Percival ignited another Knight, her flames flaring from every breach in the armour. The fire provided some light in the pitch black room, which allowed Cream to see the ground, and something caught her attention for a second. The bits that came from the Knight she took down melted into Shadow Stains right away, but soon after the droplets attracted to each other, forming small puddles and then a single one that proceeded to 'flow' away.

By instinct, she followed the thing as it ran away to who knows where. In the path a Knight crossed her way and almost hit her in her midsection. Cream reacted almost instantly bending her legs back and stopping at an square angle, which forced her to use her hands to lean on the floor. The Dark Knight brought the hacksaw sword above its head and dealt another blow, which Cream avoided by dropping on the ground and rolling away, but it barely missed, shattering the ground and stucking the large sword. She quickly got up and dashed at her opponent, using the last attack as an opportunity, osing the knee as a platform to get at head's height and piercing her sword into the eye shaft of the helmet. Just like that the huge armour let out a loud screech and shone from inside out with a bright light, cracking and blasting into pieces soon after. And like before, the tiny bits melted into droplets that gathered and flowed to another place.

This time Cream managed to follow it until it reached a small drain in one of the walls. She had a bad feeling about it, but she didn't have much time to think because there was already another Dark Knight right behind her. Just when she turned and faced the tall figure ready to behead her, a blade engulfed in flames pierced the front of the armour plate and the whole thing burned until only the armour was left. Percival removed her sword from the empty armour and already blocked another oncoming attack.

"Cream! Focus on the battle!"

"R-right!"

 _ **Misty Lake - Nimue's Lake**_

Shock was stamped into everyone's faces as Lancelot seemed to fall in slow motion to the ground, a meter long dark arrow trespassed to the half by his right elbow. If there was any doubt about his strength it completely vanished because the black hedgehog changed his sword from hand and used it to hold himself up, falling on his knees. He didn't let out a single scream of pain, only a short hiss that escaped his gritted teeth. The hold on the handle of his sword was as strong as he could, in a way to not pay attention on the obvious pain coursing through his right elbow. He could not be carried away by this, not now.

Controlling his breath the best he could, he slowly got up, never letting the two ladies and the young girl see his face directly, and faced the enemies at distance and the near ones already reforming. Inside his mind, he was cursing himself for letting something like that happen. Not only he was failing to take down the enemy, he almost let them hurt the young girl, the Royal Wizard and his own mother. He would never forgive himself if something happened to them.

But the odds were against him, really serious this time. He was outnumbered by a fair amount, he was on the defensive, the enemy was unknown and seemed capable of coming back up indefinitely, and to worse things even more now he was injured. Not that he didn't got past equally bad situations, but the things that were at stake here turned it into a critical moment. He came alone because he thought the Stains would not breach through the magic field of her mother's homeplace and even she confirmed that, so he was completely confused how did those Underworld Knights got here, let alone how they got in contact with the Shadow Stains.

Lancelot shoved those questions from his mind. They would have to wait because the priority was to get those three somewhere safe. For some yet again unknown reason, Marine didn't manage to use her shield like she did before. There could be a lot of reasons why but the point was that he would have to protect them. There was only one way to get out of there, and it was by the same bridge they came, but it would soon be filled with the enemy, not even counting the three ones that were already here. They should get up any time by now.

His head was becoming lighter and his vision blurry. Probably the black viscous liquid on the arrows was some kind of poison, so it shortened even more the time to act. The circle was narrowing and there were less and less options available, not to mention his right arm getting numb, along with his breathing shortening by the minute. His head was running with thoughts about what to do and what was happening,but he could not focus on a single one of them, and right now the three knights stood back up. That was it, he needed to jump to action or else they all would fall. At this point, Lancelot considered two or three times staying behind for the well being of them, but that was put aside. He was Sir Lancelot, the greatest knight of the kingdom. This was not a way to end his life. He was going to make out of this, like always.

Or so he thought. The moment the Dark Knights took a stance to attack Lancelot jumped and pierced them with energy spears, but as he landed on the ground his legs fell beneath him and his face met the floor. Somehow he used his arm to break the part of the arrow that would hit the floor, preventing himself from feeling more pain than he already was. This poison had a fast action because he could feel his stomach hurting and a bad taste coming to his mouth. At this pace he would be unable to defend himself, let alone the ladies and the girl.

"M… M- Marine… get over… here"

"Lancelot!"

"Hurry up and… help me… stand at the… table"

"What?! They are still shooting those arrows, and you even got hit and-"

"Hurry- cough- just help me… I'll make a breach… so you can make… a run"

"And what about you? How are you going to… no. No, no, no, a thousand times no! You are not going to play the hero on me!"

"I am not… a hero, you stubborn girl… I am a knight, and that… is my duty…"

"No… you can't be serious". The young racoon turned to the wizard and the guardian behind her, but only found eyes already full of tears. She turned back to the black hedgehog already trying to get up. "What do you think you can do in this state?!"

She received a glare that made her shiver and step back a little. This was a look that meant he wasn't going to admit being questioned, the look of someone determined to do what he had to, no matter what consequences may fall upon him. Fighting back her own tears, she helped the wounded knight stand with his back leaned on one of the columns, being careful not to touch on the stuck arrow on his elbow.

"When I say, you all run for the horses and don't stop until you reach Camelot"

"But you-"

"DON'T stop… I'll delay them the most I can to buy you all some time. I can still… cast… ~breaths~ my energy blades…"

"And when we get safe, huh? What happens next?"

"Then my ~breath~ duty will be… fulfilled, and there... will be nothing ~cought~ more for me to do… now, get ready for-"

"No…"

"Marine… this isn't in discussion…"

"I said NO! You bet this isn't in discussion, you buckethead! You are not going to stay here!"

"There is no-"

"Yes! Yes, there is a way to get out, it has to be!"

Merlina put a hand on the shoulder of the young raccoon to try and calm her down.

"Marine, I understand how you are feeling, but we must go. I wish we were on a better situation but-"

Marine shifted herself, shoving Merlina's hand away and grabbed her shield again. She looked at Lancelot straight into his eyes, gathering every piece of confidence she could find in herself.

"Listen up, you can say whatever you want about your knight duties, but I ain't gonna leave you. What, we get into some problems and you want to give up? I expected more from the 'greatest knight of the kingdom'. Then just watch me, 'cause I'll blow up a way out of here".

She didn't knew what had happened to her but she felt pretty confident about what she said. More than that, she was pretty sure she could do it. Before, when she faced the three Dark Knights, she was afraid of not being able to defend Merlina and Nimue, she was scared because even the best fighter in town was having trouble dealing with the buffed up bucketheads, and now Lancelot got hurt because she didn't made her job well.

But now those feelings were being overwhelmed by a sudden burst of bravery, or something like that. She knew pretty well I he size of the problem she would face, but really deep inside herself she knew she could make it, and that feeling kept growing until it surfaced.

Standing up, she faced the once again in one piece Dark Knights that attacked her before. They towered over her again, raising the hacksaw swords above the head, but unlike last time, the raccoon didn't even flinched. She just held the shield tight and at the exact moment of the impact, the force field formed as she raised the shield. The move created a shockwave that not only repelled the Knights, it also damaged the armours and shattered the swords. The cracks on the darkened metal gave out a white glow and the soldiers seemed fazed, if they even could be at such a state. This surprised the two women watching the scene, but the most impressed surely was Lancelot. To say he didn't expect this to happen was an understatement, not that Marine had a single idea of what she did either. She acted on instinct, the reflex to defend came out practically by itself.

"Alright, not as effective as Cream's sword but useful anyway. Bring it on, you piles of scrap!"

The Dark Knights got up and grabbed the broken hacksaw swords to attack again, and again the were repealed by Marine's force shield, creating another shockwave and more cracks on their armours. Marine herself was now really happy and somehow proud that she managed to protect her friends, but the rest of the troops marching towards the bridge brought her back to the present situation. So, she could block the attacks just fine, but at that rate just blocking would not be enough to get them out of here. Not only that, this place seemed pretty important so she felt that is wasn't a good idea to leave those guys wandering around. She had to think of something quick.

"Hmm, if the best defense is an attack, then it works the way around… right?". She asked the two woman behind her, which returned no response at all besides an unsure look on their faces.

Once again the three Knights stood up with the broken swords and came for another attack but before they even raised the weapons Marine jumped at them with the shield facing forward. The result was a surprisingly strong blast that sent the Knights flying away, something like a super short version of Sonic's boost dash. The cracks on the armours increased to the point they were at the verge of shattering. The metal pieces clanked and the stained soldiers got up one more time, completely covered with fissures that emitted a bright glow. Marine readied herself to try the attack again but she didn't had to do so because at the first step the pressure made the legs break, cracking the rest of the armours as they fell to the floor. The pieces of the armours then started to slowly melt into small puddles of Shadow Stains, then got together and 'flowed' away through the bridge. But before it could run away, the soil it was over bent over itself, forming a small ball that sealed the black liquid. Marine looked around and saw Merlina with her staff emitting some glow from the orb.

"Barrier spells will not stop the Dark Knights, but the soil and rocks seem to be enough to contain those puddles. I will help as much I can, Marine"

A smile grew on the raccoon's mouth as the faith deposited on her boosted her confidence. Truth be said, Marine just accepted that this was what Blaze, Sonic and the other guys felt whenever they got out to save the world or something like that, and it was pretty cool.

"Right! Stay in line, bucketheads, Marine is coming to get you!"

The Knights were reaching the middle of the bridge and were pretty much aligned, so the young raccoon imaginated it as a bowling game, were they were the pins and she was the ball. At the very end it could be fun. Taking some distance, Marine made a run towards the Dark Knights and right before hitting them she raised the shield, creating a huge shock wave as the force field formed. It sent at least ten of the armours flying, much further than before, and the rest received some damage, becoming stunned for a while. The first armour thought fell on the ground and shattered in pieces immediately.

"Wow, even I wasn't expecting that. So if I take a bigger distance…"

With the idea on her head, Marine ran back to the end of the bridge and dashed towards the Dark Knights, raising the shield before the impact. The difference in the strength of the shockwave generated was little, but it was there. More armours were sent flying, some of them landing in the lake and some crashing into the others far behind. The ones that were in the back showed some small glowing cracks on the armours, which gave Marine the idea that it worked as an area-of-effect attack, which was pretty useful, considering that she was outnumbered and Lancelot was hurt.

Speaking of which, the black hedgehog was doing his best to keep awake and watch the unexpected combat skill of the young girl. Even he had some difficulty dealing with those Dark Knights, but that could be entirely because of the lack of a mystical weapon such as the shield she carried. Maybe he should trust more in the noisy raccoon after all, regarding her strength, that is. He knew deep inside that he could trust in her, which was the reason he told her to protect Merlina and Nimue before. Now she was also protecting him, the greatest knight of the kingdom. No, the was no shame to admit it, she was a young and brave girl without a shade of doubt. After all that had said and done, the least he could do was to watch her fight. He was sure that she would make out of it, but he wanted to see as much as he could before his forces vanished completely.

A second later and Marine would have failed to block a wave of arrows coming from the Dark Archers. Unlike the Knights, frontline units, the Archers took distance and now where aiming at her with those terrifyingly long arrows. Those things pierced the solid stone of the bridge with ease, which made her think for a moment in the pain that Lancelot had felt, and the simple thought made her entire body shiver. By any means she could let herself be caught by one of those, but those archers would be pretty problematic. On the bridge it was easy to knock the Knights since they were all aligned but those guys were pretty far away and if she didn't take care of the Knights they would get to Nimue, Merlina and Lancelot. Right now she wished Cream was there to lend some help.

 _ **Camelot Castle - underground tunnels**_

"One more to go"

"Alright!"

Percival blocked a vertical attack and countered it, leaving the Knight's defence wide open. Cram dashed forward and slashed it at the midsection, leaving a large and bright cut in the armour. The Dark Knight screeched and exploded into tiny bits that melted away. The fight was finally over, and Percival couldn't be more relieved that it ended. Considering the numbers, prolonging it would exhaust Cream to a point where she would be in danger and her sacred flames also had a side effect of shorten the amount of fresh air they had in this room, which wasn't really much because the air down there was pretty stagnant.

Even in the middle of the darkness, the sacred knight could feel her young apprentice's nervousness.

"There is no need to be so nervous. Take a minute to breath, Cream"

"That's not it. When I slashed those things, the pieces… they melted into Shadow Stains and kind of 'ran away'. Do you know where those tunnels lead to if we keep going down?"

Percival put a hand on her chin as she thought about it. Even though they memorized the tunnels to move faster across the town and the surrounding areas, none of the knights fully explored them.

"I suppose that at some point the passages will converge into a single point and then leave the domains of Camelot Castle and the town"

"Like some kind of sewer system… I think that I know how the Stains reached this far"

"How come?"

"The Stains don't seem to spread much fast, but it moves on its own so, I bet there's some kind of tunnel that goes a long way under the lands of the kingdom"

"Are you implying that we had a breach on our defenses?"

"Kind of. Tails had a name for this type of thing, what was it...? Backdoor"

"Such a low tatic. Whoever is behind this must be at the lowest level of dignity. Well, we must go back and report that to lady Merlina when she arrives-"

"Wait, we cannot leave now. I saw the Stains gathering together. I bet it returned to the pool we saw, but what if there are more of those?"

"Which is why we must go back. The sooner the Wizard knows it, the faster we can take action"

"I seriously have the feeling that we won't have that much time"

"So what is your suggestion?"

"... Take this one down"

"What?! Cream, we barely made it on this confined room. We don't have a single advantage here"

"We don't have to fight directly. Just one touch should be enought to clean that mess of dark mud"

"Have you ever seen a pond of Shadow Stains so big before?"

"No, but-"

"Then I take it is too risky to try. We will mount guard on the tunnels to prevent these corrupted Knights from reaching the surface and-"

"Miss Percival, I really mean it, I feel that this is a bad idea"

"As much as I admire your confidence in your judgement, I cannot simply act based on a 'feeling', Cream"

"No, you didn't get it. It's not like a 'feels odd' thing, I'm sure something big is coming. Let's say that… the sword is telling me, if that makes any sense…"

"Well… it surely is an object imbued with a strong magical power, but even so…". Percival was conflicted. Her experience screamed that going back down there was the worst case scenario, with even less room for combat and possibly a much greater number of enemies, but until now Cream demonstrated an incredible amount of capability in dealing with the problems presented to her. Cause damage to the enemy was also a good way to slow down it's progress, and there was always the possibility of a leakage of the Stains, like what happened days ago in the town. Letting out a sigh, she looked at her young apprentice, who had a determined look in her eyes.

"Alright, we will go down and purge the pool, but at the first sign of major danger we are going to retreat. No need to play the hero"

"Sure. I'll make sure to be as quick as possible"

With that they went downstairs once again and followed throught the tunnels again. This time Percival took another route so they ended into the pool using another passage. Cream looked at the room beneath and confirmed her suspicions. A thin string of Shadow Stains dripped into the main pool while more of the corrupted Knights emerged from it. She focused herself to charge the sword and looked for an opening. She had to do it in a single and fast move so they could escape easily.

Holding her sword tightly, Cream readied herself to jump down and slash the pond, but at the moment she was about to jump, Percival shoved her aside. An upper part of a Knight appeared behind them, floating as it let out a trail of purple mist. The sacred knight reacted in time to get Cream out of the way but the entity knocked her down, straight at the pool of dark mud. A loud splash drew the attention of all the Knights and Cream who, without a second thought, jumped down and slashed the black pond with a huge energy blade. Luckly, Percival emerged from the black mud, coughing and gasping for air. She reached the border and Cream helped her get out of it as the mud started to bubble and change it's viscosity. It then turned into a purple water that seemed to be boiling, and then into a transparent pink liquid that started to evaporate. Meanwhile, the Knights were already coming for them so Cream and Percival moved already, running again through the tunnel they used before. The knight used her sword to create some firewalls and delay the enemy.

As they ran back to the surface, Percival started to feel short breathed and her vision was getting blurry. Her head was light and she was having trouble on focusing as her mind started to wander. As soon as they got out of the underground tunnels, Percival sealed the entrance and called some knights on patrol, telling them to mount guard at the other entrances and be ready to fight if necessary. With that, she fell on the ground face down, almost fainting.

"Miss Percival!"

Cream reached for the knight, turning her body up and she saw why her friend fell. Her body had dark purple stains forming everywhere at a scary fast pace. Her breath was short and she could see the color of her eyes vanishing bit by bit. Cream panicked for a moment before she remembered she had her sword with her, but then another thought came to her mind. At the first outbreak of Stained people, some of them were in a pretty advanced state and when she purged the Stains from them they seemed to feel a lot of pain. This made the young rabbit hesitate because she didn't want to make her friend suffer, but she thought that Percival would be even more hurt if she became one of those things.

She knew what she had to do. Cream charged the sword and as gently as she could she cutted the arm of the fallen knight, leaving just a thin line on her skin. The area around the cut shone a bit and the Stains turned into mist as it did before, but the rest of her body didn't change. And to worsen things more, the area she cleaned was slowly getting stained again. Cream started to panic, but she remembered what Percival taught her. She called for help and some knights appeared. She asked them to carry Percival to the castle and followed them as they went to the medic wing.

 _ **Misty Lake - Nimue's Lake**_

"Are you sure about that, Marine?"

"Actually not, but this is the best I can think of"

Marine said as she held her shield up, raising the force field to block another row of arrows. She was back at the center of the lake with Merlina, Nimue and Lancelot. She decided that just knocking the Dark Knights down would take too much time, something she didn't have to spare. So she thought of a plan to get them out and get Lancelot somewhere where he could recover. Again, the idea of leaving those things here sounded really bad but if Lancelot recovered, they could get rid of them now that she could effectively help.

Merlina carried Lancelot on her back, careful not to move the arrow stuck on his shoulder, while Nimue carried his Arondight and Marine took the lead, keeping the force field up. The plan was to keep moving and reach a safe place, but she was in doubt if they could outrun them, given the present situation. There was really nowhere to run to and the help was pretty far too, but she would not just stay put and wait for the end.

They started to move across the bridge but at the end of it the Dark Knights were already getting together again. The last ones were coming out of the water, which acquired a slightly purple color when in contact with the armours. They were trapped and Marine could not use the blast shield thing because of the Archers. The moment she lowered the shield, they would attack without mercy. She was out of options and her mind was racing. Was there a way to get past them?

Then suddenly, a flash of light and some of the armours shattered and fell to the ground. The raccoon looked back with wide eyes as she saw the source of the bolt that exploded some of the enemies. Lancelot, making a huge effort to keep his head and arm up, just used his energy spear to open up a path, still on Merlina's back and barely breathing.

"Lancelot! Are you crazy?! You should rest!"

"... Leave it… for when… we get out… You have… a plan… right…?"

"Yeah but-"

"Then… let me help… As much as… I can…"

Even thought she knew he was exhausted and in pain, Lancelot had the same proud and determined look on his face the he always had, but at the same time something was different. Was he smiling? Yeah, he definitely was smiling, and not a common one, but a kind of smug grin that gave out a 'I not gonna die here' vibe.

"Geez, talk about acting cool. Alright, aim at the ones with more cracks first. Once we get you and Nimue out of danger, me and Merlina will take them down, one by one if necessary, but we need to avoid those archers"

"Well then… make room…"

Another bolt of energy was fired, blasting more armours and cleaning the path. This way they managed to pass by the bridge and cover some ground before the Dark Knights reformed again. They weren't really fast but they surely were stubborn and hard to take down, considering that Marine was literally using her defense to attack. Now, for the Archers, they got near and Merlina casted another soil bending spell, creating a wall to block their aim. It would not stop them but the delay would help them get somewhere safe. Once out of range from the Archers they stopped and Merlina put Lancelot down. Looking closer at him, his body had purple stains everywhere, which indicated the situation.

"The arrow… it must have been covered into Shadow Stains, and now that it pierced him…"

"Oh no… can we reach for Cream in time?"

"I'm afraid we cannot…"

" _~cough~_ Don't be so sad… your plan… worked… Now get out… while I hold… them a little… bit…"

"I thought we already discussed that!"

"I know… It is a… shame for me… as a knight… But you… have to go. I don't have… much time left…"

"Go?! Knowing that you can turn into a black monster?"

"I will be… dead… before I… turn into this… thing". He focused his strength on his good arm and reached for Arondight. Merlina had tears on her eyes as she knew what he meant. But Marine entered in the middle and grabbed the sacred sword, pointing it towards the fallen hedgehog.

"You'll only get that sword the moment we make sure you are going to be alive and well"

"Quite selfish… aren't we…?"

Marine let her head down for a moment. "I know… but sometimes we have to. I want to save you, I want to save Merlina and Nimue, and I want to kick those black rusted idiots, and I want to see Cream again and kick some butt together, and also I want to go back home with her. It is a lot of things, but there's no problem in being greedy sometimes, right?". She was fighting the tears on her eyes. That surely was a long list of things to do, and she was almost failing at the first of them. But then Nimue spoke something.

"Desire… no, a will to do something, to reach a goal. Yes, will power is a strong force that can carry one much further than it's limits allow it to". She turned to face Marine, who now was looking straight at the guardian's eyes. Her serene face and her bright eyes washed away the agitation in her mind.

"When one faces a mountain, it's the willpower that decides if it will climb it or turn around. You had been overcoming barrier after barrier to reach this point, not letting fear or doubt stop you forever. Each time you pass by a trial of fire, you get stronger, just like that shield". Nimue then kneed in front of the raccoon, placing a hand over her head in a maternal way.

" _Unbreakable and everlasting, so is the will of the bearer of the Thargon Aegis_. This is part of the story my mother always told me. The will of the the guardian to protect this land, to protect her friend, it became carved into the shield when she forged it. So in order to use it's full potential, you need to have a really strong will power, to achieve a goal, to fulfill a duty, to protect someone dear"

Nimue looked to Lancelot, who was fighting to stay conscious. Her eyes met with his and he felt some kind of peace, as if she was telling him that everything was going to be okay. She then looked back at Marine and gently brushed her head while she got up.

"We all trust in you, Marine. Your will to not give up and your loyalty to not leave a friend behind, those are qualities worth of a great knight. Now, what will you do?"

Marine was completely stunned by those words, so much that she almost forgot where they were and the size of the problem at their hands. Her eyes wandered from Merlina, holding her staff and with a gentle smile on her face, to Nimue, with a tender look on her face that reminded her a lot of Blaze whenever she was down and the cat came to talk with her. And finally Lancelot, who once again had that grin on his mouth, as if he was asking her what she was waiting for.

" _What will I do? That's obvious"_. "I'm gonna get us outta here, and those big sized buckets are going down!"

The grin that Lancelot had turned into a simple smile, and his eyelids closed a bit. The colors of his eyes were fading and he felt very distant now. He was kind of happy that the last thing he would see was that annoying girl growing up so much to the point where she looked like an equal knight to him.

But for Marine, that wasn't enough. She kneed beside him and closed her eyes. Her mind focused on what she wanted, what was her goal, who she wanted to protect. The doubts and fears vanished away, giving space to a great feeling of strength. Her mind then wandered to her friend Blaze. She always seemed fearless and invincible for her, but now she understood her better. Everyone had some fears and doubts, but Blaze always put them aside because she had to do so. And so did Sonic and the knights. And in her case it wasn't different.

And then, the shield emitted a faint glow, similar to what Cream did with the sword. The light intensified and engulfed Lancelot's body. The hedgehog felt a warm sensation curse through his body, taking the place of the coldness and tension that was before. His vision cleared and the clouds on his mind faded away. Finally, the burning feeling on his shoulder ceased and he felt his strength coming back. He grabbed the arrow and in a single move he took it out. In seconds the wound closed and healed. He was more than healed, he felt completely full of energy.

Getting up, the black hedgehog took his sacred sword from the hands of the stubborn raccoon in front of him, who was almost crying like a kid. He looked at her with a warm smile and brushed away the tears on the corners of her head eyes. Suddenly, Marine felt the need to hug him, and so she did, embracing his waist with her arms and holding him tight.

"Never try to make a cool parting again, you hear me?" Said the raccoon as she sobbed a little. Looking at the Royal Wizard and then at his mother, Lancelot couldn't answer in any other way.

"Loud and clear"

Letting go of him, Marine rubbed her eyes and her smile returned to her lips.

"So, ready to turn those rusted buckets into modern art?"

"I don't know what is it that you call 'modern art', but I'm eager to discover"

With that Marine and Lancelot went back to the fight. Once they left the cover the Archers spotted them and shot another row of arrows, which Marine blocked with her force field. Lancelot blasted two knights on their way and they moved to the Archers, deciding to deal with them first. Signaling with a nod, Lancelot jumped out of the force field and ran around, dragging the attention to him while Marine ran straight to her target. When they faced her again she was already in front of them, raising her shield and knocking them back. In that same motion she kept running and repeatedly sending shock waves at them until the cracks covered their entire armours, letting to Lancelot finish by blasting them with his energy bolts.

Next where the frontline Knights, gathered in a single group and marching towards them. An exchange of looks and they had the same idea, diving straight forward at the enemies. Marine raised her shield and send them flying up in the air, filling the armours with glowing fissures, while Lancelot stood in the middle of them and channelled his energy.

"Stay back. This is going to be harsh"

Marine took some distance and watched and the fallen Knights around the black hedgehog got up and walked towards him. Lancelot let out a reddish aura around himself as he apparently charged up his attack. His face was one of pure anger, but his eyes kept focused. He raised his hands up, and when he brought them down a huge explosion blasted all the armours away, turning them to pieces and scattering them far away from where they were. Marine, with wide eyes, ran back to him.

"Wow. So this is your famous Chaos Blast"

"Hmm, Chaos Blast… doesn't sound bad"

"Oh right. The Shadow from Sonic's world calls it that way"

"I feel I'd like to know this Shadow you talk of"

"I bet you would. Come on, we have to go back"

Running back to where Merlina and Nimue were, Marine received some praise for her efforts, and the group quickly moved to the horses, mounting and leaving Misty Lake. They had some new to tell everyone and Nimue went with them since she wasn't completely safe anymore.

By the end of the afternoon they reached Camelot Castle and Merlina called for all the Sacred Knights to meet her art the Wizard's Library, but then Cream appeared out of nowhere, running and with her eyes full of tears. She rushed to Marine, almost knocking the surprised raccoon on the floor as she held her in a tight hug. The young rabbit then turned to Merlina, her expression full with fear and desperation.

"Cream, what happened? Why are you crying?"

"Miss Merlina, it's miss Percival. She got stained!"

Shock and fear filled everyone's hearts as they heard it, and then they hurried to the medical bay following Cream. When they reached the place, the sight of Percival shocked them even more. She laid on one of the many beds, her fur with a dark hue of purple and with a pained expression on her face. She breathed with difficulty, sometimes even coughing. All over her arms were very thin cuts side by side. She was sweating tough a cold vapor came out whenever she breathed out.

"Cream, how did it happen…?"

"I… we were on in the underground tunnels when I felt that there were Stains near, and we ended fighting with a lot of Dark Knights"

"The Dark Knights left her at this state?"

"No. We managed to defeat them, but then they melted into a strange liquid and I followed it. We found a big pool of Shadow Stains and it worked like a spawning point for the Knights"

"Do you think there could be something like that at Misty Lake?" Lancelot said to Nimue.

"Who knows. We'll have to search it carefully if we want to put an end to this crisis" said the Guardian. Cream kept telling her story, but much more sad than worried now.

"Miss Percival insisted that we should turn back and report this to you, miss Merlina, but I wanted to take care of this. And because of me… she ended falling on the pool. We ran and got out of the tunnels, but as soon as she gave some orders to the knights that were around… she fell to the floor and ~sob~ her fur turned dark purple and ~snif~ I even tried to purge the Stains… but they keep growing over and over! Her arms are filled with cuts… but that didn't work! I, I, I couldn't help her!"

Cream was panicking and hyperventilating, her eyes full of tears. Nimue quickly went to her side and placed her hands on her shoulder, soothing the young rabbit until she was able to breathe normally again. She then put a hand on Cream's chin, lifting her head to meet her gaze.

"You made the best you could. From what you told us, I can say that Percival would be in a very worse state if you didn't delayed the advance of the Stains"

"But I didn't get to save her-"

"Shhh, stay calm. We can't do everything by ourselves. That's why we trust each other, right?"

Cream nodded positively.

"So, do you trust your friends?"

"Sure"

"Then everything is going to be fine, right Marine?"

"You can count on that!" Marine said as she quickly moved to Percival's side and closed her eyes, remembering the same feeling she had back at Misty Lake.

Cream watched in awe as she saw her friend do the same thing she did with her sword. The light the shield emmaned covered the cat's body, and then all the Stains started to evaporate, leaving her fur with the original lavender color. The purple mist didn't escape because Merlina casted a wind spell, making it get sucked into an orb of whirlwind. The knight laying on the bed suddenly started to cough up, and Cream quickly reached for a bucket near the bed and brought it to Percival's hands. She immediately sat up and a lot of dark purple mud came out of her mouth as she kept coughing. Merlina immediately changed the format of the metal bucket, impending the Shadow Stains from escaping as they tried to 'flow' out of it.

As for Percival, she let herself fall back on the bed, opening her eyes slowly and seeing everyone gathered around her, including Gawain and Lamorak who just came and Galahad, who had been helping Cream take care of her. She even got surprised when she saw Nimue standing at Merlina's side. It was good to see her but it was also a bad signal. Things were so bad that the Guardian had to come, or Misty Lake wasn't a safe place. The looks on Merlina's face, beside the apparent relief concerning her health state, told Percival that maybe it was both options. With a strength that she didn't knew she had, Percival sat up again and looked at the group in front of her.

"So, what did I miss?"

Everyone let out a relieved breath as Percival showed she was as good as new, and soon Merlina and Nimue started to tell them about what they discovered at Misty Lake. After that Cream and Percival gave some more details regarding what they found in the tunnels and about the Dark Knights. Moments later they were all gathered in the Wizard's Library, with the addition of Eliza and Alicia, the latter freaking out once she saw the Lady of the Lake in person, leaving for the cat maid to control her antics.

Now with maps from the vast network of tunnels, they looked at it and tried to find the origin of the leakage of Shadow Stains in Camelot. From what they could see, there was an very old and deep set of tunnels that lead far away from Camelot, reaching near the Shrouded Forest, which could explain how the Stains travelled so far. Not only that, Alicia added that there were many cave systems in the region, which would make it easier to the Stains to spread around the land, connecting with what Percival had reported days ago. The mystery was starting to get solved.

"We know how they reached so far, but considering what we saw at Misty Lake and what Cream has told us, there's some kind of inteligente behind the Stains. And there's also the Underworld Knights that got filled with them"

"Underworld… where did I see it before…?"

"Did you remember something, Alicia?"

"Oh, nothing important Eliza, just a mentioning I kind of saw between some books, it's all"

"Please share it with us. Any lead you get could be crucial to our victory in this battle"

Alicia scratched behind her ear furiously as she didn't expect the Lady of the Lake talking with her like that. The vision of her seemed almost ethereal to the maid dog.

"Well, I was just glancing at some books looking for more information about the past of the Wanderer and then I found some mentions to some kind of force that wasn't from this world. I tried to look further on it but I didn't find any books talking about it, and I thought I was deviating from the main objective"

"It's not a surprise. You wouldn't find those books even if you looked at the entire archive. That because they stay here at the Wizard's Library" Merlina said as she motioned to Alicia to follow her.

"Really?! I can read the books in here too?!"

"Alicia, calm down a bit" Eliza had to hold her in place.

"Eliza, just look at it! So many books I have never even heard of before!"

"Focus on your task"

That didn't make her a little bit less excited tough. The two maids followed Merlina to the second floor and in an impressive short time, they came back some books and scrolls on their hands, Alicia with the biggest smile on her face.

"Alright. So, there's this old wizard book that talks about many ancient powers and between them there's one that harness the energy of the Underworld, a separate realm where untold dark and corruptive powers and a volatile form of misty miasma reside"

"That's the base for the spells I have used before" Merlina added with some sorrow in her voice.

"Looking further at it, the inscriptions says that there are points scattered all over this world that have a stronger connection with the other side, points where some kind of bridge forms, allowing for some people to access it. Those points can be naturally formed or created"

"I have heard about that" Nimue stepped in. "The altars of the Sacred Swords and Misty Lake itself are points where the barrier between both worlds are very thin and fragile"

"So that's why we used our swords to seal the breach to the Underworld back then"

"Exactly, Sir Gawain. But it seems possible to create more of these bridges" Nimue said as she looked at Alicia.

"Yes, my lady. But it's not a easy task. In order to create an artificial bridge, one has to gatter and channel an incredible amount of energy in a single place"

"How much energy are we talking about, lady Merlina?"

"I'm not sure, sir Galahad, but I would say… enough to shift the world at will"

"The Fountain!" Both Cream and Marine concluded.

"The source of pure energy that the Wandered found long ago was so strong it affected the forest around it" Cream said.

"And even after it got corrupted, the entire place got affected by the Stains"

"Good thinking, my young ones. Say Merlina, how did you make to cast the forces of the Underworld?"

"As the Guardian, you might know about the seals on the weak points. I used some spells to weaken and tear some holes in them. This way, only a small amount of the miasma came out"

Percival was still thinking about something. "The Stains are filling the Underworld Knights because the corrupted source weakened the barrier between worlds, but why now? It's been there for ages"

"If I got this right, someone would have to break the seals, right? Then aside from lady Nimue and lady Merlina, who else could do it?"

"If we discover that, Lamorak, then we'll be much closer to solve this problem" said Lancelot.

After that, they decided that while they didn't found the one responsible for this, the priority would be clean the underground network, getting rid of all the Stains and Dark Knights they found. This time they all would be together.

And so passed a week, with the knights and the girls searching through the tunnels, purging puddles and pools of Shadow Stains and defeating hordes of Dark Knights. In the meantime, Percival kept with her lessons and Nimue helped the girls to learn how to use the full potential of their weapons. According to the Guardian, the special properties of the weapons were capable of awakening the hidden potential of the users, if they were capable of harnessing all their power, hence the huge development of Cream and Marine as knights. When they were teamed up, they managed to put some pressure even against the Sacred Knights.

And then, suddenly, Merlina felt a great disturbance. She gathered everyone again and shared her thoughts with them. What she felt wasn't anything like the other waves she detected before. In comparison, the previous disturbances were like tiny pebbles thrown at a pond, and that last one was like a huge boulder hitting the surface of a lake at high speed. Whoever was behind it was keeping a low profile, as she suspected, and know considered safe enough to make a bigger move. This filled her heart with worry because this could be the sign that the plans of this mysterious figure reached a crucial point, and it could be too late to do something about it.

"For that reason I feel that we must act now. It's very dangerous to take the offensive knowing so little about the enemy, but this can be our very last chance"

Everyone heard that and had serious looks. Eliza had worry all over her face while Alicia looked down as if it was the end. The girls remembered once again the severity of the situation they were.

"Marine, Cream. I cannot just ask for you two to get into this battle. Give me some time and with Alicia's help I'll find a way to send you two back to your-"

"Stop right there, mate. We're not going anywhere"

"Yes, we never ran from a fight before and we won't start now"

"Listen, this isn't your fight. You have nothing to do with it"

"This is something I learned from mister Sonic. Get involved in things that don't have nothing to do with you… that's what makes you a hero"

"Yeah. Besides, as knights he can't just ignore when someone needs help"

"I guess they won't let you use the easy way, Merlina" said Nimue as she gave the young wizard an encouraging smile.

Lancelot then stepped in, looking at the two young girls with a frown of his face.

"Now, wait just a moment. We are talking about the future of the kingdom here. Only knights of the kingdom should enter this battle"

They were about to complain but the black hedgehog held his hand up and then looked at Nimue.

"Would you care to make the honors, my lady?"

Immediately bright smiles shone on their faces knowing what would happen next. With a warm smile of her own, Nimue walked to the center of the room, taking Arondight from Lancelot for a moment.

"I have never expected you to be so sentimental, Lancelot"

"They earned it with their efforts and bravery. I could not ask for better persons to be at my side on the battlefield"

"You surely have grown up, Lancelot… well then. Come forth, Cream the Rabbit, Marine the Raccoon"

The two girls exchanged excited glances and ran up to the Lady of the Lake.

"Being a knight is more than just a title. It's a symbol of hope for those who are in desperate times. It means help those in need, even if you don't gain anything from it. It means living a righteous and honorable life. It means be willing to give your own life to protect the ones you hold dear, the kingdom and the people that live in it" Her speech reached not only the girls, but everyone in the room, motivating them all to the battle that was coming.

"On your knees"

The two girls got down on one knee and lowered their heads a bit. Nimue then raised Arondight and touched on the shoulders of both girls, giving it back to Lancelot after that.

"I, Nimue, Lady of the Lake, hereby nominate you, Cream and Marine, knights of the Round Table. Now rise, Sir Cream and Sir Marine"

As they got up, everyone around gave them a round of applauses, cheering for the newest members of the Knights. Unable to contain their happiness, both girls hugged Nimue thigh, something very inappropriate for such a ceremony, but perfectly acceptable in the eyes of the kind Guardian, who embraced them in a hug too.

After that, Galahad lead the two girls to the armory, after all if they were going to battle they would need some proper equipment, like an armour. But given their size, even the smallest pieces they had in there too clumsy and got in the way whenever they tried to move. But then an idea popped into their heads and the girls asked if they could go to the town. Curious about what they had in mind, Galahad asked Lamorak to join him and then they got to the town. The girls walked by the streets until they reached a house with lots of pieces of armours and weapons in the front of it.

"Miles! Are you here?!"

"I'm going!" Sounded a voice from inside the house.

And soon appeared the figure of the yellow fox with his trademark goggles and wearing his thick leather gloves.

"Marine! Cream! It's good to see you again"

"Same here mate! Oh, did you know sir Galahad and sir Duster here?"

"Hey!"

"Wow. I mean, it's an honor to meet you in person"

"You don't have to be so formal if you are a friend of the girls. So you are a blacksmith, and a good one from what I can see"

"I give my best. But, I suppose this isn't just a visit to see if I'm doing good, is it"

"I'm afraid you are right. Those two stubborn girls here are about to enter in a serious mission, and they need proper equipment for that"

The girls quickly explained wat was the situation, and Miles heard everything with much attention. At the end he couldn't help the worried expression on his face, but shrugged it aside. If they said they would do it, he was sure they would make it and stay just fine. Getting and dusting off his apron, Miles started to sort out so pieces here and there.

"Very well, if you are going to risk yourselves for the place I live in, then the least I can do it make you two the best works I can do"

He took out some measures from them and quickly started to heat up the furnace and work on the metal. He told them that on the next morning they would be ready, which surprised the two Sacred Knights. He wasn't going to make full armours, but it was still a feat to accomplish given the short time he had. The girls trusted the young fox and just left him to do his work.

Back at the castle, they decided to make something different with everyone and then another idea came to them. They ended talking with the royal cook, asking pretty please to let Cathy make a dinner for everyone. Once he saw both the Royal Wizard and the Lady of the Lake interested, he instantly ordered to call the panda maid, who was more than happy to do it. And so all the knights, the trio of maids, the Wizard and the Guardian enjoyed the wonderful dinner Cathy made for them. They laughed together as Gawain started to talk about his great feats, and Lancelot stepped in with his stories as a dragon slayer, and at some point the two knights started a duel to see who could fit more potatoes on the mouth and say 'chubby bunny', a suggestion of Cream. It was their last night together before they headed for battle.

Early in next morning, just as he said, Miles arrived at the castle with a huge box tied on his back. He met with the girls and helped them with their new armours, making the final adjustments and explaining some details about them. Once they were done, the girls ran to the other knights to show them the work of Miles, and they got pretty surprised with the quality of the armours.

Marine used a helmet that covered most of her head leaving only her pigtails to show, protecting her pointy ears and having a small grid on the front so she could hear normally. The visor of her helmet had a single horizontal slit. She also had round shoulder pads adorned with a cross, her arms were covered and she had two small gauntlets with a small bright blue gem on each, at the back of the hands. She also had her feet covered and her legs up to the knees. Her chest plate had the format a heart, designed with a cooper orange line. The hem of the plate had some point ends that looked like petals of a flower, also having a design in orange lines that made them look like leaves. The armour was from a bright silver color and the details had a polished orange hue.

Cream had a similar armour, with a bright silver being the main color and the details being golden colored. Her helmet was more like Lancelot's, covering only the front and top of her head, leaving her ears free to move. Her visor had a standard bars format. Her shoulder pads had the blade of a sword on them and her gauntlets also had gems just like Marine's, but these ones were amber in color. Also, the right gauntlet was slightly bigger than the other. Her feet and legs were covered to her knees, and the hem of her chest plate had some thin stripes tied one to another in layers, making it look slightly like a dress. Her chest plate also had a heart shaped detail on it.

The armours were light and allowed them to move without restrictions, and they seemed pretty durable too. Truly a wonderful work.

"Thank you so much Miles!"

"Yeah, those armours totally rocks!"

"Thank you. I kind of wanted to make something that resembled of you two"

"Really?"

"Yeah. The gems at the gauntlets, they match with the colors of your eyes…"

After hearing that both girls gave him a warm hug. During the past days Merlina found a spell that created a lot of energy so probably after that they would be able to recharge the Ocean Tornado, meaning they would leave to who knows where. So it was kind of a goodbye for them. They only let go when Lancelot walked to their side and put his hands on her shoulders.

The then tanked the young fox for his efforts and even asked if he wouldn't be interested in working at the forge of the castle, something that he accepted with much honor. They got to the stables and readied the horses, heading to the gates of the castle, where Nimue stood. She got near the girls to give them a last advice before they left.

"Always remember that the true power of the weapons appears when you put all your heart on them. _Unbreakable and everlasting, so is the will of the bearer of the Thargon Aegis. Grace and power follows the one who wields the Helian Blade._ Believe by n yourselves and you will achieve great feats. I'm sure of that"

Nimue leaned closer to them and the girls removed their helmets, allowing the pink hedgehog to plant a tender kiss on their foreheads. With that little charm of good luck, the two girls got up in their horse and together with the Knights of the Round Table and Merlina, dashed towards the unknown enemy they would face.

The sun just raised above the horizon and they were already at the Shrouded Forest, heading towards the place where they found the big tunnel where the Stains were flowing by. Getting into the tunnel, they followed it for a long path in the dark, having to light the way with torches. They felt that they were walking for hours, but it was probably the effect of the Stains. Finally a light appeared in the end. As they approached it, Cream and Marine started to get a bad vibe from the place ahead, a sign that they were close to their objective. When they got out of the tunnel, the vision they got surprised everyone.

A huge castle with very tall towers that seemed to reach the darkened skies was in front of them. Above it, dark clouds of storms swirled around, thunder and lighting crossing from one place to another. On the ground, a purple fog spreaded all over the place, something Merlina was familiar with.

"That place… it can't be"

"What is this place miss Merlina?"

"It should not be possible, but it looks like we are in the Underworld. That fog you see is the miasma that affects things from our world"

" _Hahahahahaha! Oh dear, this isn't the Underworld yet but I'm working on it"_

A feminine voice sounded, as if it came from everywhere.

" _So the Knights of the Round Table and the Royal Wizard of Camelot came to pay me a visit. And they even brought company!"_

"Does she knows who we are Cream?"

"I don't know Marine. How could she?"

" _Yes, my little ones, I do know you. Since you came to this world I have my eyes on you. Pretty interesting the object you have at you ship. Maybe I should look at it closer… after you all have fallen, that is!"_

"She knows about the A.P Generator?!"

"Don't worry Marine, we can take down whoever this person is"

" _Aw, the young ladies want to fight. Well, let me prepare the arena then"_

In an instant everyone found themselves at what they believed to be the interior of the castle. The floor was like a chess board with black and dark purple squares. The walls and columns where from a dark blue hue and the ceiling had many crystal chandeliers and others with candles that burned with a black flame, still being able to illuminate the place. There, on this large room, at the end stood an elevated part, and on that stood a great throne, made ofna black wood and a burnt red fabric.

There, sitting in a rather provocative position, with her legs crossed over each other and leaning her head on her right hand, stood a familiar face that Cream knew very well.

"Miss… miss Rouge?!"

"The knights around here call me Master, the brat with the staff might know me as Morgana, but of 'Rouge' also sounds nice to me. Well, welcome to my reign, dear!"

 **Act 2 finished**

 **Aaaaand done. So, as usual, leave comments and opinions if you feel like, they are always welcome. See you on the next chapter!**


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